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How Netanyahu’s Israel is like Monty Python’s cheese shop
(+972/Forward) – A government may pretend that future is a difficult commodity to come by, that it does not spring by itself from stubborn soil. It may demand patience from the public, but will thus betray its responsibility because this is exactly the definition of this responsibility: It must above all provide the people with a sense that it has a future.
Our situation as Israelis is currently comparable to that of the costumer in Monty Python’s sketch, who walks into a cheese shop intent on buying cheese, only to discover that the shop is utterly bereft of cheese. The shopkeeper does not reveal this upfront, but instead lets his customer go through an endless list of cheeses.
In a similar manner, protesters in Israel’s newly sprung tent cities and weekly-held rallies list the types of future they demand: a future for our hospitals, a future for our schools, even a future for our milk industry (no pun intended: Today saw a huge rally of dairy farmers in Tel Aviv. They protested Netanyahu’s decision to open the milk and cheese market to imports as a response to public outcry about overpriced cottage cheese).
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Netanyahu’s response to all demands is more privatization and less regulation, both of which are the causes of the current turmoil. It’s disheartening to see him claim again and again, as the cheese shop owner does, that the establishment he runs is “the finest in the district,” without providing any of the cheesy comestibles. He just can’t help it. He owes so much already to the tycoons controlling Israel’s economy, that he literally initiated and promoted a controversial law which would exacerbate the housing problem further. The law passed today, infuriating the protesters, and a new rally was instantly scheduled for Saturday night. It is set to be the biggest to date.
Every government runs a future shop, and the people are both its owners and its clientele. We more than deserve to approach our current leadership and demand different kinds of future: a personal future (i.e. a chance for growth for the individual and family), a national future (i.e. some prospect of regional peace), or a future for the specific group in society to which we relate.
- See also my diary – Israel Stocks Fall – Social Justice Rally by 300,000 Protesters
Between riots and protests: Letter from London
Reporting from London, Eyal Clyne writes that while the riots blazing in London are criminal, they stem from a legitimate frustration with the government’s economic policies, which are leaving disenfranchised youth feeling hopeless.
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."
