Israel Leads – Who Will Follow?
On October 30th, the Israeli cabinet voted to shift the tax burden from the poor and middle class to the wealthy.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s cabinet approved the taxation portion of the Trajtenberg report on Sunday, levying heavier taxes on both corporations and the extremely wealthy.
Earlier this month, the cabinet approved in principle the report by the Trajtenberg Committee for socioeconomic change, the result of a social protest movement which swept Israel all summer.
It seems as though Israelis of all shades were occupying the streets of Tel Aviv and other cities all summer to protest the inequality of only a few people controlling most of the wealth in the country. On August 6, over 300,000 Israelis took to the streets around the country.
Critics say their demands are unrealistic, especially when there is a deeper, global, economic crisis.
Others insist this is a battle for the soul and direction of Israel.
They say their “movement” is deliberately non-political. It is not about Israel and the Palestinians but normal Israelis concerned that their country is losing all sense of moral and collective responsibility.
Sound familiar?
Among the supporters of the movement is Hadash, which is an Israeli-Arab political party that holds 4 seats in the Knesset.
(NOTE: this is not a thread about Israeli-Palestinian issues. If you want to spout off about that, do it in an Open Thread. Off-topic comments will be moved).
Tags: Israel, Occupy Delaware, Occupy Wall Street, taxes
Let’s see how fast Republicans drop Isreal, now. lol.
Amazing to see Likud cave on economic issues.
Lets not dare address the elephant in the room, or address the fact Israel is pushing for war with Iran on bogus reports.
The tax changes are modest and very much along the lines of what is needed in the US.
anonymous, Its no more than the republicans who are also pushing for war with Iran based on nothing. Realize that just some of the extreme right wing in Israel’s government are advocating for mass slaughter, but “isreal pushing for war with iran” is a misstatement. the fact that this happened shows that the far-right over there is losing it’s grip on power….. that is a good thing.
SB & Anonymous – save the Israel-Iran stuff for the Open Thread, as well as your large elephant in the room.
seems relevant to me. no different than mentioning that we can see a glimmer of hope in the fact that far right wing measures in this country failed. Israel changes a policy that it’s very own GOP supported….. the same group that are war mongers. This hopefully means more changes for that country and the region. besides, it’s not like this ISNT a thread about israel.
but, it’s not my blog or thread, so i’ll see ya in the open.
SB – let’s once try to keep a thread on topic instead of throwing up stuff that gets chased down a rabbit hole and takes away from the thread.
i’ll rephrase.
this is great! Israel has shown that it too has a silent majority of fair-minded people and the war-monger right-wing Likud party is NOT the true voice of the Israeli people. If you choose to apply that logic to other issues regarding israel, i think you would be on the right track.
better?
id also like to reflect on the fact that one Jewish person is telling…. no, suggesting to other jewish people (and goyem) HOW to have a discussion on Israel…. MJ, im sure you’ve been to a Seder….. it doesnt work 🙂
SB – I know it’s difficult for you sometimes, but stop being an ass. If you want to fight the Israeli-Palestinian issue or the supposed invasion of Iran, take it to the Open Thread to be published around Noon.
oh lighten up. it’s a gorgeous day, mississippi is safe (ish) for women, teabags are being kicked around all over the country, Israel has embraced a progressive path for taxation…. you cant deny that “the moral path of israel” ONLY has to do with taxes. the “zionist occupations of free people” swine-calling is probably irrelevant here, but that isnt even the fight im fighting. How about my point? that this is a rejection of the Likud party and their policies? is that a fair point?
The j14 protests that were going on in Israel all summer long got very little media play here (at least in the print media I consume). So it is pretty awesome to see how hundreds of thousands of people taking to the streets can even make conservative ideology inoperative.
speaking of the wealthy controlling the few…
. It is …..who? Wealthy land developers…. that are the builders of those…. can i say the words “west bank” “settlements”, “building”, “the”, and “in”? (just in a different order) Those divisive building projects cause an awful lot of problems that can seem to lead to other problems with certain people who may or may not want to live there. If, because of this….. the event that is the sbject of this thread…. leads to a reduction in that mad dash for cash… cant the consequences of THAT be discussed?
just to be clear im not defending this ^ crap. you’re right. that belongs somewhere else.
I moved the comment Ben is referring to to the Open Thread. That is where it belongs.