Regardless of what you call it, the protests sweeping Israel are inspiring and encouraging, both for what it might mean for the future of Israel and the entire Middle East - and for how it could or should inspire Americans to also "rise up."
Some 300,000 Israelis, overwhelmingly Jewish and secular, protested this past Friday - that is roughly equivalent to some 9,000,000 protesters in the US (by percentage of population). Wow!
Today's article in Ha'aretz really struck home for me. To quote from that article:
“What is keeping people on the streets is the question that if we are all having a hard time and we are all working and paying taxes, who is making the profits?” said Daphni Leef, the 25-year-old filmmaker who began this protest movement with a Facebook posting and remains at its center. “We know there are certain families that have a lot of money and a lot of influence and there is no transparency. People feel deceived.”
Those families — the Ofers, the Dankners, the Tshuvas, the Fishmans and others — account for the 10 biggest business groups in the country and together control some 30 percent of the economy. They will doubtless be among the targets at another set of street demonstrations planned for Saturday night.
Well, in the United States, the top 400 richest individuals control more wealth than the "bottom" 150,000,000. That is disgusting, immoral, and anti-democratic in the deepest sense.
And I do believe many, many Americans are outraged. But somehow we are all or mostly all not taking action, going out on the streets, challenging both these filthy rich stealers of our wealth (oh, they steal "legally" through political "contributions" and having laws written in their favor, but still they steal) and the elected officials who clearly don't represent us.
So I hope that the Israeli protests will be the spark that brings Americans out in the millions to say:
"Forget compromising with the Tea Party! We've been "compromising" for decades. It's time to correct the imbalances."
1 comment:
Yes, there are many people in the streets in Israel and even far much more those that support them without being in the streets ... and we will ALL FAIL together ... because capitalism has made the millions, their lives, their jobs, their health depend on those few ones that only know one single thing: MONEY, MONEY and again more and more MONEY !!!
They know nothing about those who are scratching their brains deep into the night, struggling for survival, to keep this poor world still "sailing".
We will all fail because we continue to support this monster called capitalism, which has destroyed our peace and our future and now it has only our lives left behind ...
Unfortunately, all our hard work, love and respect for human dignity and social justice are not enough if we do not dare to attempt the replacement of the system itself,
from its deepest depth :( :( :(
Just keep the PL/SQL Challenge going ... our only sunrise left in these dark times, our only chance to remain human ...
I'm happy that I am not alone with my thoughts.
All the best,
Iudith Mentzel
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