It is amazing how Israeli industrial action can kick the country in the groin just as it is trying to get to its feet after a more prolonged back injury.
The Israeli economy has been in the doldrums for some five years now. Inflation is virtually at zero percent this year, which while sounding like good news for the consumer is indicative of a shrinking economy. At the same time, unemployment is predicted to pass the 12% mark at some point in 2004.
Meanwhile, the government is continually attempting to cut the state budget. The Treasury says it has surgically removed what it can from the fat and now it has no choice but to take away some of the lean.
No surprise then that this leaves the poor angry.
Because the surgeon’s knife is being wielded rather unwieldy above the welfare-benefits payments that keep afloat many of Israel’s poor.
Any cut or threatened cut, along with the mention of “slimming the public sector” leaves the proletariat angry, confused and facing increased poverty.
But.
Strike and other industrial action in Israel helps no one. If anything the poor suffer even more.
Take the latest tomfoolery at Ben Gurion International Airport. The customs officials are facing job cuts. So they have decided to take industrial action. Thinking themselves smart, they have taken an unusual route. Rather than stopping work, and thus allowing every drug trafficker free access to the state of Israel, they have opted to up their work rate. They are checking every single person arriving at the airport. This week, your child’s electric car, you mother’s wig stand and your own underwear are likely to be “checked” for illicit substances.
The effect after 24 hours is horrendous. People are having to wait for as long as two hours to reach the arrivals hall and their waiting loved ones or public transport.
Israel is already suffering from a bad rap in the media leading to a collapse in the tourism market. Surely the tried and tested formula of refusing to work and letting the 12 bottles of liquor through is better than this kick in the teeth?
While every Israeli has the right to protest and is protected in law if he or she does so, perhaps the individual should also take into account the greater good of the state. And if you think that is far too altruistic an approach, remember, the more the state benefits, the fewer financial cuts the country’s poor will face.
And in turn, the fewer the hardships for the individual, the more he or she will be happy to contribute to society, meaning the economy will be much less likely to be bedridden once again.