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Subscribe to RSSJohn Ray, NBC News writes:
So, we've all seen and heard plenty of the Arab spring, stretching now into a bloody summer in Syria and Libya.
But maybe even more surprising is the sudden emergence of what inevitably will be called the Israeli awakening.
Nadav Neuhaus
Israeli Gilad Peled participates in a demonstration for socioeconomic change in Tel Aviv on Saturday, July 30. Peled is working two jobs and his wife just lost her job. They have a young girl and they can't pay all of their bills each month. Peled says he is fed up that politicians have forgotten who elected them to parliament and he says it's about time that they start working for the people and not the other way around.
Out of almost nowhere, a grassroots campaign has sprung up to challenge the nation's leaders.
What's more; it has nothing to do with the peace process, with Palestinians or West Bank settlements.
In fact, it's even bringing Arabs and Jews together. They share a common enemy. The soaring cost of living.
On Saturday, organizers are promising the 'mother or all demonstrations' to surpass the 150,000 strong protest that took to the streets last week.
That’s a remarkable figure in a country of just 7 million.
Nadav Neuhaus
Two weeks into Israel's housing protest, demonstrations are sweeping the country. More than 150,000 people took part in protests nationwide calling for socioeconomic change and demanding social justice.
Dairy farmers, army reservists, taxi drivers, even parents planning a "stroller protest" - all have played a part in demonstrations so far.
They have a long list of demands; action on rising rent, fuel, food and power costs. Tax breaks for the less well off; free schooling and changes to health system.
Israel is a heavily taxed nation; people are asking what they get for their money.
Part of the answer is the huge cost of security, a fact not lost on anyone.
"The sense here that we're living in a war zone, traumatized by terror - it's like we're not allowed to talk about 'small' issues, day-to-day stuff," one of the organizers, Stav Shaffir, a 26-year-old masters student, told the Guardian newspaper.
"But security also means education, health, housing. We don't want to be controlled by fear."
With opinion polls showing 90 percent public support the protests, Israelis seem to have found something to agree on.
Nadav Neuhaus
A protester uses a laptop In Tel Aviv's weeks-old tent encampment.
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It's a wonder we don't have our own protests en masse here. Too bad we've all been trained by schooling and main stream media to be good little citizens.
I am wondering when Iran spring would arrive? Iranian people needs to be awakened from the deep sleep that they have gone to. All crucial factors that have triggered uprisings in Syria, Libya, Egypt, Tunisia etc exist in a wide spectrum in this country. Economy , in particular, is in a very bad shape so that poeple are in desperate to provide their necessities. Moreover, inflation rate is increasing on weekly, not to say daily, bases. I dont know what kind of magic Iran`s brutal and oppressive regime has done to people of Iran that they are mostly silent and irresponsive to whatever is happening in their country.
If I may give my limited education and under age opinion. I notice some one wrote,"at least you won't see them firing on the citizens. I am assuming this is an in the window stone thrown at those poor people in the Arab counties. I would like to say first , "we don't know the whole story in those lands. Our Media and government is full of broke promises ,lies,and cover ups. So at least -don't judge.
Also- If Israel was shooting its own citizens or arresting them . We would not report it! This Israel protest is growing so big and has gotten so out of hand and exposed through alternative Media,that they have to mention it..
So that they put a spin on it, to play it down. The real truth is,I have been reading about this for almost three weeks and it started a month before that."
If that was a country we had issue with,our news would be showing reruns and distorted stories 24/7.
I don't care if 30 angry workers ruched a a goat factory( we would make it look and sound like the Arabs were starving their people and killing them for trying to eat.
And those clips would be doubled looped and ran 24/7...
I think we started that BS over in the middle east .....and our propaganda machine will back fire on us, because people will ask, "why double standard for Israel" and the Israelis will notice and ask, "why aren't their voices being heard . people will notice
The simple truth of why this is all happening is that a very small minority of the worlds population is bound and determined to control the rest of us, period. Their greed for wealth and power consumes them and blinds them them to the plight of everyone else on the planet. This small minority(probably less then 100,000 people) will do anything and everything to keep the rest of us under their thumbs. This occurs the world over. This small elite is only .00001428 percent of the total world population and yet controls over 75% of the wealth and resources, and they are increasing that every day. This elite is comprised of the corporate leaders of all the worlds corporations be they banks or just multi-nationals. It also consists of former elites(the ancient nobility), amd members of the political elite of the major countries of the world.
There is only one way for this imbalance to be rectified, and that is by an armed revolt against them and a siezure of their property and assets, and a new system implemented to insure fairness within the system amd prevent anyone or any group from concentrating to much in their hands. Now socialism/communism did not and will not work. People need incentives to work hard and to innovates and be rewarded for their efforts. I would call it 'Benevolent Capitalism'. Well, just some thoughts on the situation on our planet.
They are protesting their government for being fed up with the way their government handles things. When is our future leaders going to take the initiative and renovate this countries government for the good of the people, not for what they could DO TO the people.
Did I miss read the head line and articl, that the protests brought Arabs and Jews together? Seems they are doing what their government is failing to do.
Bad news as Foolish Aerica will probably increase the 3.5 billion dollars a year aid to 5 billion! America could use the money a hell of a lot more than Israel!
Wheeler, the Israelis are NOT home. They stole the land from the Palestinians who have ALWAYS been there, even before biblical time. And not all Palestinians are Moslem. There are plenty of Christian Palestinians, and I don't know for a fact but there are probably a percentage of Jewish Palestinians.
Looks like the cost of not making peace with the Palestinians is starting to cost too much.
@ Javadanny. Young american do have a lot of guts. Look in the streets, they all have it hanging over their belts.
It is imperative that the United States adopts a fiscal policy that will keep its sovereign debt within acceptable limits, not only for America as a whole but also for global economic stability.
One area of cutback needs to be foreign aid, particularly that aid that is used for military and political purposes, as opposed to humanitarian relief.
In this context, the US$30 Billion that is given to Israel each year under an agreement made by the failed former president, GW Bush, with Israel's right-wing government, should be immediately scrapped.
These monies, for which Israel is apparently completely unaccountable, amount to $8.2 Million A DAY, or US$500 a year for every man, woman and child.
It is not known whether there are any other questionable payments of such magnitude, but it is unlikely given that there is no other pressure group as powerful as that of the American Israeli lobby, that could conceivably demand and obtain such funding from Congress for a foreign state that is of no strategic or security benefit whatsoever to the American people.
@John RD Kidd : right on! Let's cut the unilateral umbilical cord to Israel. They have NOTHING to offer us in return for American blood & treasure - except continual warfare in the Middle East. Let 'em fight their own battles.
I concur! It is ridiculous how much foreign aid is sent to Israel.
Come ON, guys! This could be a whole new world...with the younger Arabs and Jews throwing over ALL the old ways, starting with economic problems. So let us try to support and encourage them, rather than constantly raking up the past.
This awakening could be very dangerous to global security. The rogue nation of Israel has illegal WMD's and needs to be dismantled.
Anonymous177, Bullhockey! In 1948, the Arab nations tried to crush Israel on the eve of its birth, and, in the words of the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem (Arafat's uncle) to "drive the Jews into the sea". Before the 1967 War, Jewish holy places and cemetaries were routinely trashed by the Arabs (including the Jordanians using headstones to pave streets), and Jews were denied access. To portary Israel as a "land-grabber" is ridiculous to anyone who has actual knoweldge of historical events. If even one iota of the aspersions cast upon Israel were true, it would not have surrendered GAza to the terroists in the forlorn hope of peace, and would demolish and remove the "Dome of the Rock" Mosque from Israel's holiest site: That of Solomon's temple.
We Americans have been asking about where our tax dollars are spent all the time but just like every government on earth they refuse to tell us, so we are not so differant from the rest of the world. Americans won't our government to get the hell out of foreign affairs and let those people that are bent on destroying themselves have at it, I pesonnally could give a rats ass.
If every nation on earth woke up one day and said we don't want any armies any more, all the nations economic problems would be solved.
Are these idiots just starting to realize that it costs money to leave in a perpetual state of war?
Sorry, I meant live.
Ok, who's the "idiot"?
This is the beginning of the end of all governments everywhere. The beginning of egalitarianism.
Get your cellphones out. Get on Twitter. Get on Facebook. This is the new way of doing things: as a globally connected network of autonomous humans working for the greater good of each other.
Hegemony ends this decade.
BACHMANN-RUBIO-2012 Not barack H U S S E I N nobama
Warren, the "The Birth of Israel" - what? Did that land not exist before that monumental date? Did not people live on that land before the Birth of Israel? Was it barren with no life on it? No, there were plenty of people who lived there and owned land, and they were/are called Palestinian Arabs. Ignore them all you want but they exist.
John RD Kid - Here Here!
So when are WE going to make a stand and camp out in Washington? Or have we all grown too fat, lazy and complacent? I was forced into early retirement just after you-know-who took over at the helm and as I speak am losing what little I have left. I have nothing left to lose, live in an area outside Atlanta where unemployment is 10+% but the actual unemployment is admitted to be over 18% (those fallen off the radar).
I see a government who can't get their heads wrapped around the concept that 1+1 doe NOT equal 3. A rudderless ship with no captain (kinda like that classic movie where Humphrey Bogart "loses it" as captain in The Caine Mutiny. Heck, lets just all come together and bivouac on the the Washington grounds.
It's way past the time for a U.S. Spring. Vote these Losers out of office so the next set of Losers can take over. Then vote them out and so on.
Come on - you guys always like to dramatize every little thing with Israel. The Israeli awakening! what does that mean? I guarantee you if you ask anyone who is out there making a statement about over priced housing they won't know what the hell you are talking about - The Israeli Awakening.
What you are seeing is a gathering of citizens of a free democratic nation to express their frustration with a particular issue. We have all seen what happens when the same thing happens in an moslem nation. They would be shot. As we all can see these demonstrations in Israel are peacefull and civil. the only way they will turn violent is if you through a few moslems in the mix...
Stop with your jelousy already!