By Ira Sharkansky
JERUSALEM –One of the elementary lessons in civics is that government does the job of sorting through various demands and deciding priorities, or Who Gets What. The key to the ongoing exercise is politics. In a democratic regime, votes bring to office the officials who make those decisions. If enough citizens find themselves unhappy and vote against the incuments, another group does the sorting of priorities.
The system needn’t work smoothly. People disagree. Democracy brings those disagreements to government. If the people have not decided clearly, and government is divided, there may be endless disputes without decisions. Occasionally there is a crucial deadline requiring a decision, and power holders from competing parties play a game of chicken.
That is the story currently front and center in the American media, and prominent in the media of other countries fearing a spillover of economic catastrophy from an American competition that may not end well.
The Israeli story is more local, so far not making much of an impact on overseas media.
It concerns another problem in the typical model purveyed in civics lessons. Lots of people find themselves disatisfied with their government, and no election is on the horizon. Demonstrations are spreading across the country, and dealing with a range of economic problems going beyond cottage cheese, housing, and the working conditions of hospital residents. Mothers are parading with baby carriages against the costs of baby food, diapers, and other essentials. Numerous protesters are calling attention to their own tax rates, military service, and difficulties in making ends meet, while several of the country’s “tycoons” have been in the news for living lavishly while their companies cannot pay the debts owed to banks and pension funds. A segment from a radio talk show is making the rounds, in which a young father with a good job in high-tech and a working spouse with three children describes in detail how the bare necessities take all their monthly income with nothing left over for entertainment or a down payment on an apartment of their own.
The variety of protests are turning in on themselves. Efforts to respond to one set of demands are provoking protests from other sectors. A government decision to ease restrictions on the import of dairy products–in response to the initial protests about cottage cheese–have produced demonstrations by farmers threatened by the imports. The head of the Labor Federation has begun posturing as the man who–along with the Prime Minister–can sort through the issues and save the country. However, his critics accuse him of entering the fray only when it gathered momentum, and ask why he did not stand up for teachers and social workers when they were having problems in earlier disputes.
As in other political disputes, not everyone is in the same camp. Groups represented in the government are not on the street.
Notably absent from the tent cities and marches are individuals with Russian accents, men wearing a kipa, or women in the skirts and head coverings of religious housewives.
There is a aura of left of center politics in the media coverage. Radio and televison are run by the same kind of people who are demonstrating, and news of the protests are leading every broadcast. The top half of Ha’aretz’s front page, and the first 15 pages of its economic supplement (The Marker) deal with news and commentary about economic injustice. (July 28)
In contrast is the front page of Israel Today, owned by an American tycoon allied to the prime minister. Its headline tells of Netanyahu’s effort to meet protesters’ demands: “The Milk Market is Open to Imports: ‘Price Declines Expected.'” Another headline on the front page reports that the head of the Labor Federation “Jumped on the Bandwagon of Protest,” and questioned if he was a hitchhiker or a leader. Also on the front page was a headline indicating that physicians had rejected a generous offer at the last minute.
Although the people on the street, and those supporting them in the media are not those currently with their hands on the government machinery, the picture is not all that simple. Israel does not operate like its neighbors. Even a street in the hands of the political opposition will be heard, if there are enough marchers and their demands resonate.
The working of government is well charted, and subject to projection. A Knesset majority selects a Government, and it decides on most issues. The weight of various insiders guides analysis. The weight of the street, yelling from outside the ruling circles, is less amenable to prediction.
All of our local commotion may turn into a forgetton storm. If the ripples of a defaulting USA produce defaults in banks around the world, and lending stops, our shortage of desirable housing and other unfairness won’t mean a thing.
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Sharkansky is professor emeritus of political science at Hebrew University. He may be contacted at ira.sharkansky@sdjewishworld.com
Sharkansky is professor emeritus of political science at Hebrew University. He may be contacted at ira.sharkansky@sdjewishworld.com