“Schlaglicht Israel” offers an insight into internal Israeli debates and reflects selected, political events that affect daily life in Israel. It appears every two weeks and summarizes articles that appeared in the Israeli daily press.
Main topics covered in this publication:
- Wave of Violence continues
- 20 years since the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin
- Netanyahu’s Statement regarding the Mufti and the Holocaust
- Selection of Articles
- Wave of Violence continues
The hearts and minds of the Israeli people
(…) We are indeed experiencing an intifada. (…) Despite the difficulties, Israeli forces are once again using all of their energy and resources to combat terrorism. (…) The main difficulty in preventing “lone wolf” attacks is of course the lack of available intelligence. It is practically impossible to know when a terrorist who is working on his own will pull out his knife and stab a passerby. (…) In this current wave, a new intifada is beginning from a relatively low point: Knives and screwdrivers are being employed, as well as cars to run people over. Incidentally, terrorists used bulldozers in the past for just such purposes. (…) Over the years, the Palestinians have become experts at how the Israeli propaganda machine works. (…) There are hundreds of cameras filming activity in real-time at every location and as a result, there is footage available of every attack that has taken place. The prevalence of cameras is a huge change from the previous two intifadas and terrorists are taking full advantage of this medium. Many of these images and videos end up going viral on social media within minutes, as well as being featured on more traditional media outlets. (…) The rules of battle have changed. (…) In this modern technological age, every person is a potential journalist who is gathering and disseminating information. The normal process in which a professional journalist gathers information, processes it and edits it into a story is absent. (…) This third intifada has caught us unprepared as dozens of Israel’s governmental, public and private bodies, both locally and abroad, scramble to deal with the crisis. Even within the cabinet, the ministers are squabbling among themselves and budgets remain ridiculously low. To win hearts and minds, the prime minister must immediately appoint one of his ministers to lead all public diplomatic affairs for the time being. (…) Israel will gradually succeed in curbing the number of terrorist attacks and in lowering the flames of violence. But none of this can happen if we do not succeed in our battle for hearts and minds. (…)
Nachman Shay, JPO, 22.10.15
Palestinian terrorism is not random
Unlike national liberation movements, Palestinian terrorism has deliberately, institutionally, and systematically targeted Arab and Israeli noncombatants, sometimes hitting combatants. (…) Palestinian terrorism is a modern-day branch of Islamic terrorism, which has plagued the Middle East — and beyond — since the appearance of Islam in the seventh century. (…) Palestinian terrorism is nurtured by 23 years of Palestinian hate education in kindergartens, schools, mosques and media — the most effective means of producing terrorists. It was established by Abbas (…) in 1993, highlighting the fundamentals of Islam that serve to intensify Palestinian terrorism: the supremacy of Islam over all other religions; the permanent state of war between the abode of Islam and the abode of the “infidel”; the inadmissibility of “infidel” sovereignty over Waqf lands, which are divinely ordained to Islam; the sublime honor of sacrificing one’s life on behalf of Islam’s war against the “infidel”; and the provisional nature of agreements concluded with “infidels.” (…) Palestinian terrorism is fueled by the inherently immoral “moral equivalence” between Israeli counterterrorism and Palestinian terrorism, which grossly misrepresents Middle East reality. It is fueled by foreign aid to the Palestinian Authority, which funds hate education. It is rewarded by calls to negotiate with the Palestinian Authority, while Abbas promotes hate education. It is emboldened by Western pressure for further Israeli concessions and Western denial of Israel’s moral high ground in the physical high ground of Judea and Samaria. (…) To frustrate Palestinian terrorism, which aims to set Israel on a path of retreat, Israel should proclaim a constructive response, expanding Jewish construction in Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria. (…)
Yoram Ettinger, IHY, 23.10.15
Things we need to stop hearing about the ‘stabbing intifada’
It is painful to hear the phrase “lone wolves” applied to the handful – and perhaps tomorrow the dozens and then the hundreds – of killers of Jews “liked” by thousands of “friends,” followed by tens of thousands of “Tweeps,” (…) that are orchestrating, at least in part, this bloody ballet. (…) It is highly doubtful that “intifada” is the right term to apply to acts that bear more resemblance to the latest installment of a worldwide jihad of which Israel is just one of the stages. (…) Doubtful that the very question of the state, the question of the two states, and thus the question of a negotiated partition of the land (…) has anything at all to do with a conflagration. (…) On the other hand, it is absolutely certain that the cause has everything to lose by it, that the reasonable heads within the movement will be the ones who wind up flattened by the wave, and that the last proponents of compromise, along with what remains of the peace camp in Israel, will pay dearly for the reckless condemnations of the imams of Rafah and Khan Younis. Intolerable and inapplicable, too, is the cliché of the “cycle” or “spiral” of violence, which, by putting the kamikaze killers and their victims on the same footing, sows confusion and amounts to an incitement to further action. Intolerable, for the same reason, are the rhetorical appeals “for restraint” and disingenuous pleas “not to inflame the street,” which, as with the “spiral of violence,” reverse the order of causality by implying that a soldier, police officer, or civilian acting in self-defense has committed a wrong equal to that of someone who chooses to die after spreading as much terror as he possibly can. (…) Intolerable, finally, the minor mythology growing up around this story of daggers: The weapon of the poor? Really? The weapon one uses because it is within reach and one has no other? When I see those blades I think of the one used to execute Daniel Pearl; (…) I think that the Islamic State’s videos have clearly gained a following and that we stand on the threshold of a form of barbarity that must be unconditionally denounced if we do not want to see its methods exported everywhere. (…)
Bernhard-Henri Lévy, JPO, 25.10.15
Palestinian incitement exposed
These terror filled last few weeks in Israel have left many people wondering: What would lead a teenager to walk the streets of Israel looking for anyone Jewish to stab to death? How are such children produced? (…) The answer is very straightforward – incitement in Palestinian schools. (…) As long as this incitement continues, not only is there no chance for peace, but there is little chance of bringing these horrific terror attacks to an end. The Europeans and the United States are now scrambling to figure out a way to stop what they call the “cycle of violence,” which in the current climate means Palestinian terrorists attacking and killing Jews, while Israeli police and soldiers shoot them to prevent the attacks from being successful or to minimize the damage during the attacks. They can start by addressing the incitement in the schools and textbooks, and making all funding of the Palestinian Authority and projects in the Palestinian territories conditional on eradicating these books and all incitement.
Dov Lipman, TOI, 21.10.15
We have no other promised land
This is a personal appeal to Latifa from Nablus, or Jamila from Qalandiya, to Ranin or Futna from Ramallah. We’re all women. We’re all mothers, daughters and sisters. We were created in image of man. (…) Even though you’re a Muslim and I’m a Jew, at the end of the day our worlds and dreams are very much alike and connected. (…) If we met in any other place, unburdened by emotional, political, and historical baggage, we’d certainly have endless things to talk about. But when we meet here, in this nation beset by hardships and misfortunes, everything (…) is sadly drowned out by loathing and the wails of bereaved mothers and widows. (…) I have no delusion that you will give up your home, but you must understand that no one will uproot me from my home and my country, either. Don’t make the mistake of thinking that fear will guide me or that a knife will chase me away from my homeland. This is the promised land. We have no other country, and we’re here to stay forever. (…) Death should not be our way. There are other ways for women to be fighters: not with knives, rocks, or bombs, but with our maternal feelings and our experience in reaching understanding even in the deepest disagreement. (…) Don’t let extremism lead you astray. (…) Don’t let religion become blood.
Liora Minka, IHY, 18.10.15
Right from Wrong: What the Beersheba lynching says about Israel
(…) it is not merely Zarhum’s innocence that has caused a stir in a public already shaky from weeks of rock-throwing, stabbing and car-ramming attacks perpetrated by Palestinians against Israelis. It is, rather, an ethical principle shared by most. (…) Two days later, on Wednesday night, a man believed to be a terrorist was shot dead by soldiers outside of the Central Bus Station in Jerusalem. (…) Unlike in the case of Zarhum, here the victim actually was behaving like a perpetrator, so there is a bit more understanding on the part of the public about his having been killed, perhaps unnecessarily. Clearly the guy was crazy, or suicidal – or something along those lines. (…) What the two incidents have in common, however, is how rare they are. This is as important to keep in mind as it is both laudable and extraordinary. Since early September, Israelis have been living in a kind of limbo: watching their backs while walking down the street; driving with trepidation; hesitant to ride the buses; afraid to hire young Arabs with sharp tools to do renovating or gardening jobs; jumping to turn on the news with every sound of an ambulance siren or overhead helicopter. Many average people are now carrying pepper spray, tear gas, pocket knives and – those who are licensed – guns. (…) Under such conditions, one would expect the number of casualties from mistaken identity, or from innocents getting caught in crossfire, to be very high. Instead, they are almost nil. (…)
Ruthi Blum, JPO, 25.10.15
Public’s sense of safety rattled
The terrorist attack at Beersheba’s central bus station on Sunday constitutes a “status change,” less over its results and more over its location, the perpetrator, and the feelings it evoked among the public (…) not only because it took place “here,” at the heart of a major Israeli city, but also because of the terrorist’s identity — a resident of the Bedouin town of Hura in the Negev. We must be careful not to generalize or place collective blame, but the effects of the Beersheba attack will resonate for a long time, and ethnic minorities will now be automatically suspected. (…) Cities across Israel will undoubtedly demand to increase police presence on their streets to protect their residents, and rightfully so. (…) The alternative is increasing the use of civilian security guards, but they may be untrained and ill-equipped and therefore prone to making fatal mistakes, as they did Sunday. The police must also exhaust the investigation into the fatal shooting of the Eritrean man, who was killed after he was mistaken for a terrorist (…) and how, and why, bystanders were allowed to assault him further after he was shot. The rage is understandable but such brutality is not, regardless of who it is directed against. (…)
Yoav Limor, IHY, 19.10.15
The right decision
If everyone involved in the eternal conflict over the Temple Mount was on board with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry’s latest initiative, the current wave of Palestinian terrorism would come to an immediate halt. (…) Most of Israel’s religious/ultra-Orthodox public does not permit or encourage visiting the Temple Mount. (…) Kerry praised a proposal to install round-the-clock video surveillance on every corner of the Temple Mount compound. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was right to accept this proposal. In fact, he should have suggested it first. (…) The surveillance cameras will clearly demonstrate who violates the rules and who betrays the trust and who remains in the mosques in the dark of night plotting to throw stones at visitors the following morning. They will also reveal which Jews go back on their promise not to pray. (…)
Dan Margalit, IHA, 25.10.15
Temple Mount agreement won’t lead to immediate calm
(…) The impact of the false call “All-Aqsa is in danger” has been significantly reduced on the Palestinian street, so the agreement (…) will not lead to an immediate change. (…) Who benefitted from the understandings? Kerry, who can go back home with a diplomatic achievement (…); Jordan’s king, who is perceived as a responsible adult in the international arena and, at the same time, as the real and main defender of Al-Aqsa in the Muslim and Arab arena (…); and Netanyahu, as Israel reached a Jordanian-initiated decision to install cameras on the Temple Mount in cooperation with Jordan. (…) In addition, Israel is not required to return to the status quo which was valid until 2000, as demanded by Abbas. In other words, Israeli security forces will be able to impose order on the Temple Mount whenever the Jewish worshippers in the Western Wall below it are in danger. (…) The provocations of radical elements among the Judea and Samaria settlers during the current olive picking season are adding fuel to the fire and evoking feelings of rage and helplessness among the Palestinians. The security forces should take notice of this matter. (…) The Jewish rioters could reignite the fire of stabbings and vehicular attacks which is beginning to die down. The State of Israel must not let them drag us all into a new escalation. (…)
Ron Ben-Yishai, JED, 26.10.15
- 20 years since the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin
Yitzhak Rabin’s gift
(…) The renewed preoccupation with the slain prime minister is not just a tribute to his leadership; in many respects it is a reflection on the ongoing quest for a common compass. (…) Yitzhak Rabin was, beneath his gruff veneer and almost bashful demeanor, unusually sensitive to those around him. (…) For me, beyond the extraordinarily precious overture, there has always also been something more: a prime minister who — even in the most stressful of political times — could find a moment to do something pleasing for someone he didn’t know particularly well. In his own, sabra, way, Yitzhak Rabin was what Israelis call a ben adam (a mensch) — someone reliable, predictable and loyal. Even when, with a fling of his hand, he appeared dismissive, he never ignored another human being. (…) Yitzhak Rabin was also known for his forthright style: candid to the point of being astonishingly blunt. (…) For better or for worse, one always knew where one stood with him. The frank style of leadership which was his trademark was, for many, refreshing. There was no trace of either arrogance or duplicity in his thoughts or in his behavior. There was a direct line between what he believed, what he said and what he did. (…) Above all else, however, Yitzhak Rabin was Israel’s definitive realist. (…) he had a clear understanding that interests and values went together. Rabin, therefore, was the most relentless of peacemakers; he would never have defined himself as a peacenik. His dedication to the achievement of a lasting solution to the Arab-Israeli conflict was for him a concrete mission and not a naive pipe dream. Peace would secure Israel and assure its physical, material and normative wellbeing. (…)
Naomi Chazan, TOI, 26.10.15
There will be no pardon
(…) It has been 20 years. It is obvious that Amir will not be pardoned. (…) Amir (…) has been in solitary confinement for 20 years. All the privileges accorded to other prisoners were denied him, although he managed to regain a few — such as not having security cameras in his cell, being allowed to marry and to have conjugal visits — by availing himself of the legal system and the aid of the Association for Civil Rights in Israel. (…) He will never be pardoned, because there is an absolute consensus between the Left and the Right about the significance of the assassination. (…) Twenty years have passed, and nothing could be farther away than a pardon for Amir. (…)
Uri Heitner, IHY, 26.10.15
We didn’t realize how much Rabin was hated
(…) Yitzhak Rabin himself (…) disregarded the threats on his life, and we – his bureau employees – followed this disregard, which eventually claimed his life. (…) the prime minister’s bureau in Jerusalem (…) during the days of Rabin, was a pretty quiet island in a stormy sea. The voices from the outside were blocked by sealed windows, and the protests seemed like “nothing” from behind the windows of the armored car. (…) The bigger echo arrived in the mail, and in this case through shoe boxes with dead cats, letters smeared in feces, Nazi symbols. In most cases, they were not seen by the prime minister. (…) As the person who was informally in charge of Rabin’s image, I tried during the stormy days of the Oslo Agreement not to separate him from the the people and to demonstrate what he had always wanted to prove to his opponents: That he is not afraid of them. (…) We properly internalized the “commander’s spirit.” (…)
Eitan Haber, JED, 26.10.15
The Rabin assassination: When Judaism failed
When Yigal Amir murdered Yitzhak Rabin, he did not target Yitzhak Rabin the man; he targeted the prime minister of Israel. (…) The assassin used a gun barrel to change the results of the ballot box, seeking to overthrow Israel’s decision-making bodies and take over its marketplace of ideas. The shots targeted the very essence of the sovereign Jewish state; the blood on the pavement was the blood of democracy itself. (…) The religious and cultural failure that led to the Rabin assassination continues to threaten Israeli sovereignty and democracy today. Traditional Judaism, which developed in the Diaspora, was not ready for the establishment of the State of Israel. (…) Defining foreign policy and security matters as halakhic issues removes them from the realm of democratic decision-making, since some believers—not all of them—see religious commandments as above the here and now, outside of history, and blind to rational and moral considerations. Moreover, invoking the halakhic obligation of “be killed rather than transgress” in the context of foreign policy issues raises associations of historical periods when decrees demanded the violation of fundamental tenets of faith and the Jews were forced to use all means at their disposal to resist. This type of rhetoric moves extremists to take action. (…) Broad and fundamental reform is vital. (…) Today’s religious Zionist leadership must respond courageously—using sensitive and balanced halakhic language—to the most important development in Jewish life of the last 2,000 years: the Jewish state. (…)
Yedidia Stern, HAA, 25.10.15
Are you coming to the Square?
(…) I didn’t attend the peace rally in the Square that fateful evening. But I did witness how the two political camps were splitting Israel in two and how they would fling incriminations at each other. One side spoke about its love for the land and blamed the other side for relinquishing its responsibilities and for showing weakness in the face of the enemy. And the peace camp blamed the other side for inciting war. Neither side was sensitive to the other’s fears, how its members felt that their entire world was being threatened, and that their view was the just one. (…) It’s now been 20 years since Rabin was murdered, and the hatred is still here among us. (…) Israel’s security, strength and mere existence as the home of the Jewish people demand that we make courageous decisions about our future, the most important one being that we separate the two peoples that live here. (…) I want to see the Square full of people who desire peace and not violence. Twenty years later, I’m asking the same question that Rabin did that fateful night, with his embarrassed smile and a cigarette hanging from his lips: Are you coming to the Square?
Tzipi Livni, JPO, 29.10.15
- Netanyahu’s Statement regarding the Mufti and the Holocaust
Crazy like a fox
(…) Netanyahu’s assertion (…) that the founder of the Palestinian people, Haj Amin al-Husseini, convinced Adolf Hitler to eradicate rather than expel the Jews of Europe was an overstatement of Husseini’s role. No, the Holocaust was not Husseini’s idea. (…) Husseini proved his loyalty to the Nazis long before he arrived in Berlin. His romance with them began with Hitler’s election victory in 1933. From then on, Husseini’s followers in Mandatory Palestine greeted one another with the Nazi salute. Swastikas festooned their towns. The Nazis began directly funding Husseini’s terror war against the Jews of Israel and British Mandatory officials in 1937. (…) As the grand mufti of Jerusalem, Husseini invented and shaped the Palestinian national ethos in a manner that aligned with his pathological hatred of the Jews. (…) The goal of Husseini’s nationalist drive was not to form a Palestinian Arab state, but to prevent the establishment of a Jewish state and to annihilate all aspects of the Jewish national liberation movement through a campaign a terror and political warfare. (…) Husseini began his active collaboration in the Nazi war effort. He participated in the Holocaust directly. In 1943, he formed the SS Handschar Division comprised of Bosnian Muslims. His troops exterminated 90 percent of Bosnia’s 14,000-member Jewish community. (…) Husseini was indicted as a war criminal in Nuremberg. (…) It is true that Hitler didn’t need Husseini to convince him to annihilate European Jewry. By the time Husseini arrived in Germany, the Nazis had already murdered a million Jews. But Netanyahu’s claim that Husseini made it impossible for Hitler to suffice with expelling the Jews from Europe is true. The only place that wanted the Jews of Europe was the nascent Jewish state in the Land of Israel. (…)
Caroline B. Glick, JPO, 22.10.15
Netanyahu’s Hitler remarks: A blatant historical lie
(…) The mistake made by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (…) was both diabolical and blatant and ridiculous. (…) Netanyahu was raised and educated in the home of one of the greatest and highly regarded professors of history in the world. With such a past, he can’t afford to say the nonsense he did. (…) How can the prime minister of Israel claim that Haj Amin al-Husseini, one of the biggest Israel haters in the history of mankind and a person who was “addicted” to the Führer, was the one who suggested that Hitler burn the Jews, when during their meeting more than one million Jews had already been massacred and annihilated in Germany and in occupied Europe? (…) what got into Netanyahu when he voiced such nonsense on the eve of his trip to Germany. What exactly was he trying to achieve? To prove to the Germans that the Arabs had always wanted to destroy the Jews, even before there was an occupation? Are there any intellectuals or politicians in Germany today who are not aware of that and of the fact that there is a wave of terror taking place against Jews these days? Is that why he has to make up historical lies? (…)
Noah Klieger, JED, 22.10.15
Netanyahu’s mufti myth
(…) when General Rommel’s drive through North Africa reached the outskirts of Egypt, it was completely clear that the Mufti was planning to join forces with the Nazis in order to expand their extermination to the Mandate of Palestine and other areas. But it wasn’t only Jews who prepared for the onslaught. Even Arabs who were rivals of the Mufti – who proved during previous revolts in the 1930s that his gangs would murder his political rivals even more than the Jews – began to flee. In effect, many historians attribute the Mufti with splintering Arab society in the Mandate of Palestine. Even after Rommel’s defeat in the Battle of El Alamein, the Mufti continued in his genocidal attempts and even crafted Operation Atlas in an effort to poison the water in Tel Aviv with the use of German paratroopers. The operation failed. The fact that the Mufti was a devout Nazi is not up for debate. In all matters concerning the systematic murder of Jews, he seems to have been a Nazi before the Nazis even existed. (…) In any case, there’s no reason to give Hitler a free pass. He certainly didn’t need the Mufti in order to hate the Jews and the Mufti didn’t need him. They simply found soul mates in one another. (…)
Ben-Dror Yemini, JED, 22.10.15
Netanyahu has found the perfect scapegoat for Israel’s woes
(…) We thought, naively, that it was Hitler who initiated the Final Solution, and that the German people happily cooperated with him. Yet we were wrong. Netanyahu taught us that Hitler only wanted to expel the Jews. But at a meeting with the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, Haj Amin al-Husseini, in November 1941, the Mufti said to him, “Burn them.” (…) According to Netanyahu, Hitler was merely the Mufti’s head of operations. And because the Mufti is “still an admired figure in Palestinian society” and “the father of the Palestinian nation,” and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas is his successor, all the Palestinians are guilty of destroying the six million – just as they are guilty of all the other problems afflicting Israel from that day to this. (…) the most recent wave of terror attacks is the result of “incitement” (…). After all, we all know the Palestinians’ situation is excellent. They enjoy a high standard of living, they’re happy, there’s no occupation, no oppression, no abuse, no appropriation of land, no construction on private land, no nighttime searches, no curfews, no checkpoints, no unemployment, poverty or distress. (…) The reason for this sick story is simply a desperate search by Netanyahu for someone to blame for the mess into which he has gotten us, which is reflected in the wave of attacks throughout the country. Instead of explaining why he has shattered any chance of an agreement with Abbas, he prefers to blame the Palestinians for everything – including the Holocaust. (…) The entire world is hugely embarrassed by Netanyahu’s words. (…)
Nehemia Shtrasler, HAA, 24.10.15
Apologies to the Fuhrer
(…) our apologies, fuhrer, for having slandered you for the past 80 years, when the true enemy, the embodiment of evil, was actually the leader of the neighboring people — and not the Nazi killing machine, the concentration camps or the doctrine of racial purity. It was the Palestinian mufti. (…) It’s true that the mufti does not come out looking well through the lens of history. He embraced the primitive idea that “the enemy of my enemy is my friend.” (…) If Haj Amin al-Husseini hadn’t appeared in Palestinian history, Netanyahu would have invented him. In the days of the British Mandate, there was a popular saying among the Zionist leadership: “Count on the mufti” — that is, to come out with some declaration that would justify an attack on the Palestinians. (…) Netanyahu’s attempt to place the mufti at the center of the conflict shows just how bankrupt the extremists in Israel have become. How ready they are to gamble everything. It’s a declaration of all-out war on the Palestinian people. It’s “us or them.” The territory into which Netanyahu is dragging us, Arabs and Jews alike, is terrible. (…) have just one small request for the prime minister: Please, stop abusing us. We were expelled from my parents’ land in the village of Ma’alul. Most of my compatriots are refugees outside their homeland. And now you’re turning us into damned Nazis. (…) Can’t you find another people somewhere that you can harass?
Odeh Bisharat, HAA, 22.10.15
- Selection of Articles
U.S. dragged back kicking and cursing into the Netanyahu-Abbas abyss
Barack Obama needs an Israeli-Palestinian flare-up like a hole in the head. (…) From the outset, there were clear indications that the administration was in denial. (…) the U.S. buried its head in the sand and prayed that things would blow over without the need for it to get involved. (…) Some officials are worried that Netanyahu’s assault on Abbas is anything but innocent: in their opinion, the Israeli prime minister may actually be encouraging the Palestinian president’s downfall and his replacement by more extreme leadership, from Hamas on up. In one fell swoop, diplomatic pressure on Israel would evaporate, the international boycott movement could collapse and Israel might even exploit a moment of crisis in order to annex parts of the West Bank in which few Palestinians live while turning Palestinian cities into autonomic Bantustans. The IDF, which is loathe to carry the military and financial burden of such ambitions, is trying to preempt them instead. (…) Obama hasn’t exempted Netanyahu and Israel from responsibility for the volatile situation in Jerusalem, above and beyond the government’s decades of neglect of Palestinians living in Israel’s eternal and undivided capital. (…) The administration’s main aim right now is to return the dangerous genie to the bottle that Netanyahu, in their eyes, failed to close in time: (…) Among people close to the administration there are those who are even toying with the idea of using the crisis as leverage to re-launch some kind of peace process: For now such offers are being greeted with amused sighs of despair. (…)
Chemi Shalev, HAA, 18.10.15
Israel Electric: a monopoly directed against the public
On Sunday evening as 150,000 households were left without power, the Israel Electric Corporation was engaged not only with how to quickly repair the damage wrought by bad weather and how to reconnect darkened homes to the grid, but with who would do the work. (…) the workers’ committee had ignored the company’s declaration of an emergency. The committee went on a wildcat strike (…). The right to strike was disproportionately abused — apparently illegally — not to foil an immediate risk to the working conditions of employees, but with the intent of evoking widespread anger directed at the government, or of delivering a message to the new management that shows who wields the power. (…) A state intent on remaining viable cannot afford to lose control over critical economic apparatuses. The irresponsible conduct exhibited by the IEC’s workers’ committee is a result of the disproportionate power wielded by this monopoly, with its near-absolute grip on the state economy. This lawless behavior will only pave the way for defensive measures by the government, even at the cost of harming the right to strike.
Editorial, HAA, 28.10.15
Israel Electric behaves exactly like a monopoly should
(…) This is exactly how a monopoly behaves when it faces absolutely no competition. It becomes corrupted from top to bottom, from bribery affairs to deep disrespect for its customers. (…) This is exactly how a monopoly operates when Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon are (…) scared that the union might get mad at them and turn off the switch, or even worse: Take revenge on them at the ballot box. This is exactly how a monopoly works when it keeps 2,500 superfluous workers on for years, paying them billions of shekels a year at the taxpayers’ expense. (…) Instead of supplying the public reliably with electricity, it supplies itself with endless enhancements in employees’ salaries and pensions. (…) As a result of (…) failed management, the IEC loses hundreds of millions of shekels a year, and it does not have the money to prepare properly for the winter winds, rain and snow. (…) where are the excellent Knesset members Shelly Yacimovich and Zahava Galon, and Social Affairs Minister Haim Katz? Imagine what they would have been shouting if private businessmen had owned the electric corporation and supplied the public with such a level of blackouts. The solution to the IEC dilemma is to return to the well-founded reform of 1996, which determined that the company should be split into three firms: Electricity generation, transmission, and distribution. (…) private power plants produce more reliable and cheaper electricity than the IEC does now. (…)
Nehemia Shtrasler, HAA, 29.10.15
HAA = Haaretz
JED = JediothAhronoth / Ynetnews
JPO = Jerusalem Post
IHY = Israel HaYom
TOI = Times of Israel
GLO = Globes
Published: November 2015
Responsible:
Dr. Werner Puschra,
Executive Director Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung Israel
Editors:
Susanne Knaul
Judith Stelmach
Homepage: www.fes.org.il
Email: fes@fes.org.il
