"Netanyahu moves to stay ahead of social welfare protests" August 05, 2011|By Calev Ben-David, Bloomberg News
JERUSALEM - Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel is maneuvering to stay ahead of a “wave of populism’’ that he says is sweeping his country, sparking Facebook boycotts, mass rallies, and demonstrators camped out in city centers to protest price increases....
The protests show an increased emphasis in Israeli politics toward issues of social welfare that may undermine support for Netanyahu, who has appealed to voters by focusing on security and cutting the government’s role in the economy.
“The protesters’ main message is that security can’t trump everything else forever,’’ said Reuven Hazan, a professor of political science at Hebrew University. “It hurts Netanyahu because he has been so clearly associated with free-market economics and privatization and gives his political opposition a chance to resuscitate itself.’’
In previous stints as prime minister and finance minister, Netanyahu was the key advocate in the sale of several government-owned businesses, including El Al Israel Airlines and Bezeq, the dominant Israeli telecommunications company, and is now trying to push through the sale of Israel’s ports and public land.
While the protests have put Netanyahu on the defensive, they pose no imminent threat to his ruling coalition....
A longer-term threat may exist if the protests persist and the demonstrators are able to transform their complaints into a political program, said analysts including Hazan.
Netanyahu’s popularity has declined since the start of the protests, with one-third of Israelis giving him a favorable rating compared with 51 percent two months ago, according to a poll by Dialog, a research organization....
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Yeah, as it turns out ALL GOVERNMENTS work for BANKS and the DOMESTIC ELITE.
"250,000 protest high cost of living
JERUSALEM - Angry over the ever-increasing cost of living, more than a quarter-million Israelis poured into the streets of major cities last night in a huge show of strength by the protest movement mounting the biggest challenge yet to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government. The numbers show that the movement is gaining momentum after more than three weeks. Thousands of mostly middle-class Israelis marched through the streets in central Tel Aviv waving flags and chanting: “Social justice for the people’’ and “revolution.’’ Demonstrations began last month in Tel Aviv to protest real estate prices."
And Israel's economy was the only one that didn't take a hit over the last four years.
So who is stealing all the money in your country?
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"Israel responds to economic protests" August 08, 2011|Associated Press
JERUSALEM - Israel yesterday formed a panel of government ministers and some of the country’s leading economic experts to draw up a plan to reduce the soaring cost of living, marking a new effort to defuse demonstrations over prices that drew over a quarter-million people to the streets the night before.
The announcement follows three weeks of protests sparked by complaints over housing costs.
Since then, the protests have gained new momentum as Israelis grow increasingly frustrated with their struggle to make ends meet despite economic growth in the country that is outpacing that of other developed nations.
All governments are s***.
All governments are s***.
Pro-Israel Americans:Help keep Israel secure by ensuring U.S. support remains strong www.AIPAC.org
That's who is bringing me my news, huh?
Saturday’s turnout of over 250,000 people in public squares presented Israel’s most stable government in years with a chorus of discontent it could not afford to ignore.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sought to rein in expectations and said Israel would need to proceed cautiously, especially after Standard & Poor’s downgraded the United States’ credit rating on Friday.
Why would that have anything to with Israel? Because the BILLIONS of OUR TAX DOLLARS that are sent there not worth as much?
That's who is bringing me my news, huh?
Saturday’s turnout of over 250,000 people in public squares presented Israel’s most stable government in years with a chorus of discontent it could not afford to ignore.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sought to rein in expectations and said Israel would need to proceed cautiously, especially after Standard & Poor’s downgraded the United States’ credit rating on Friday.
Why would that have anything to with Israel? Because the BILLIONS of OUR TAX DOLLARS that are sent there not worth as much?
“We cannot take all the lists of problems, and all the list of demands, and pretend we will be able to satisfy everyone,’’ Netanyahu said.
But they can present a list of military weaponry request to the U.S. and it's filled, no problem.
“We need to be fiscally responsible, while making some socially sensitive amendments,’’ he said.
He's amazing. Israelis should be ashamed that he is your leader.
After weeks of vague calls for change, protest leaders published a list of specific demands late last week, including the construction of affordable housing and a reduction of the 16 percent sales tax. It is not clear how they would pay for the array of services they are demanding....
Yup, it IS a ZIONIST PAPER!
Maybe the funds could come from the ISRAELI WAR MACHINE that is ARMED to the GILLS!
The protest organizers, a loosely organized group of young Israelis stunned by the mass response to their complaints, have called for a million-person march in 50 cities across the country on Sept. 3.
And I SENSE an ISRAELI FALSE FLAG before then to DISTRACT ATTENTION from THAT and the PALESTINIAN REQUEST for STATEHOOD at the U.N.
So where is the next"Al-CIA-Duh"(with help from Iran) going to be, 'eh?
Which American city is going up in a mushroom cloud?
Although they have sought to steer clear from appearing political in their calls for reform, the mass rallies have given voice to the growing wealth disparity in the country and what critics contend is an inequitable distribution of government resources.
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Wow, they got four whole days of coverage. I stand corrected.
"Israel, Arab nations appear willing to have nuclear talks; Meeting would focus on zone free of weapons" by George Jahn, Associated Press / August 11, 2011
VIENNA - Arab countries and Iran are aware of the potential of using the 2012 UN conference as a platform to pressure Israel to fulfill their long-standing demands: joining the nonproliferation treaty, acknowledging that it has nuclear weapons, and allowing IAEA inspectors to probe its atomic activities.
Yeah, what a huge double standard there. Arabs and Muslims get an anal exam when they have nothing while Israel sits on a stockpile, no problem.
Israel is unlikely to do any of that. It remains unclear whether it will even attend the 2012 talks, and Chorev, the Israeli nuclear chief, emphasized in his response to Amano’s overture that his country views any Vienna meeting as “solely an informational and discussion event and not a forum for negotiations.’’
Newfound Arab and Iranian willingness to sit at the same table with the Jewish state was already reflected in a little-publicized closed-door meeting convened in Brussels by the European Union last month, where the two sides exchanged views on nonproliferation and confidence-building....
Uh-huh.
The rest is yours, readers. I'm tired of reading Israeli P.R. releases disguised as news.
Following more than a decade of diplomatic maneuvering, Israel and Arab nations have tentatively accepted an invitation by the UN nuclear agency for preliminary talks on a Middle East free of nuclear weapons, in correspondence shared with the Associated Press.
Israel is commonly considered to be the only Middle East nation with atomic weapons, and its secretive nuclear program has long been a heated subject of contention with Arab neighbors.
Letters from Egypt and Israel and passages from a letter from Syria reflect a willingness to meet. But whether the talks take place may depend on willingness to compromise on preconditions.
The Arabs have urged Israel to open up its secretive nuclear program to international inspection. Israel in turn says the proposed talks should not be construed as nuclear negotiations.
Reflecting the sensitivity of the issue, a statement from the office of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel said yesterday that Israel’s reported willingness to discuss a nuclear weapons-free Middle East “is not correct.’’
But in a May 2 letter made available to the AP, Shaul Chorev, head of Israel’s atomic energy commission, told International Atomic Energy Agency chief Yukiya Amano that “Israel is ready to cooperate’’ with his efforts to convene talks on “the experience of other regions . . . relevant to the establishment of’’ a nuclear-weapons-free zone....
Amano himself attaches high importance to the meeting - despite its relatively modest scope, focusing only on “the potential relevance’’ to the Middle East of nuclear-free zones elsewhere in the world. He told the AP that the talks would be “a very rare and good occasion in which all parties concerned can discuss their issues.’’
Israel’s presumed nuclear power status and constantly flaring Mideast tensions have made any talks between the Jewish state and Arab countries a rarity since the mid-1990s, when regional peace negotiations broke down.
But a decision last year by the 189 members of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty to convene a UN-sponsored conference on establishing a Middle East nuclear-free zone appears to be working as an incentive for the region’s Muslim nations to meet this year with Israel for the exploratory Vienna talks....
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