Israel's Alinskyites

I am sure that many of you are familiar with the word Alinskyite, being a reference to Saul Alinsky, the community organizer and radical activist who inspired the current President of the United States, Barack Hussein Obama.

Jonathan Spyer argues that while the leaders of the current protests in Israel are Alinskyites, most of the protesters are not, and will not latch onto the radical ideas of

LATMA tribal update: Remembering Gush Katif, Elhanan is interrogated, the raven who would be king

Here's the weekly LATMA update. The three featured skits are a song in memory of Gush Katif, Elhanan is interrogated by Israel's thought police and the raven who would be king.

Let's go to the videotape.

How's this for disingenuous?

With all of Israel now knowing that he's one of the people financing the 'tent city' in Tel Aviv, S. Daniel Abraham tells the Jerusalem Post that the protests are 'not political.' Channel 10 led its newscast Tuesday night with an interview with Abraham admitting that he supported the protests financially and speaking about a motive of wanting to support the peace process and oppose settlement

At heart, Israel is a Marxist country

For those of you trying to understand our 'housing protests' (which he cleverly dubs 'Woodstock on the Yarkon), Steven Plaut has some helpful explanations. Yet those very same Israelis, who demonstrate every day their skills in succeeding in markets, hate markets. The word “socialism” carries enormously romantic and positive implications for Israelis. Especially among educated (non-Russian-born)

S. Daniel Abraham financing 'tent cities'

In an Israel Radio interview in the 8:00-9:00 hour this morning, protest leader Stav Shafir admitted to Israel Radio's Keren Neubach that American millionaire and peace process promoter S. Daniel Abraham has financed some of the 'social justice' demonstrations that have taken place in Israel over the last few weeks. Abraham admitted the same thing on Tuesday night.

S. Daniel Abraham founded and

Another piece of solving the 'housing crisis'

Here's another thing we can do to free up some government money to deal with our 'housing crisis': Cut the number of government ministers. Chairman of the Movement for quality of Government Eli Sulam calls upon the PM and the ministers to declare that they are reducing the government to 18 ministers. This is to save tens of millions of shekels that can be diverted to public needs. “The

A 'totalitarian media' hoax?

Journalist Kobi Arieli describes the #J14 demonstrations as a 'totalitarian media' hoax. The "housing protest" brought an unknown number of Israelis to the streets Saturday night, but criticism of the seemingly spontaneous protest is growing. Kobi Arieli, one of the most prominent religious journalists in Israel's mainstream media, published a scathing critique of the protests on his Facebook

US ambassador Dan Shapiro on #J14 (our 'social justice' protests)

US Ambassador to Israel Dan Shapiro posts on his Facebook page (in Hebrew) about #J14, our self-proclaimed 'social justice' protests. I'll use Ron Kampeas' translation rather than reinvent the wheel. The United States has no position on the internal matters of the state of Israel. But we admire the strength of Israeli democracy. The citizens of Israel know that they can demonstrate in the streets

LATMA tribal update: Tent protest leaders reminisce about the good old days

Here's the weekly LATMA tribal update featuring protest leaders reminiscing about the good old days.Let's go to the videotape.For those who want to avoid the music during the nine days, it starts at 4:08 and ends at 6:50.

Guess who's financing the 'housing crisis' protests

I'm sure you'll all be shocked to hear Channel 2 News reported on Tuesday night that the Kadima party, led by Israel's number one opportunist, is paying for the signs used by 'protesters' in Tel Aviv, and is in constant contact with the protest leaders, in a bid to paint Prime Minister Netanyahu as solely responsible for the crisis (link in Hebrew). That's just plain wrong. Netanyahu gets some

The solution to the housing crisis

We all know that there's an easy solution to the housing crisis: Building in Judea and Samaria. The Knesset Land of Israel Caucus called for the government to adopt construction in the West Bank as a solution to the housing crisis on Tuesday, the second day of a three-day marathon Knesset discussion on the National Housing Committees Bill.Caucus and coalition chairman Ze'ev Elkin (Likud)

Shocker: Leader of 'housing' protests a poor little rich girl

Either someone is posting some false information on Wikipedia, or the 25-year old who is behind the tent cities springing up all over Israel had one of the wealthiest upbringings an Israeli could dream about. Leef is the daughter of the Israeli composer Inam Leef (ינעם ליף), and the great-granddaughter of the notable Israeli engineer Zalman Leef. Leef was born Jerusalem and raised in the Rehavia

How Israel's media manipulate the public

One of the things that took a lot of getting used to when I came on aliya was the fact that the 'news' pages here often read like the opinion pages. The same is true in the broadcast media as well: As Caroline Glick points out, 'Questions' are really arguments. Last Monday Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz gave an interview to Channel 2's news anchor Yonit Levy during the prime-time news broadcast.

They may want change but they don't want Livni

Over the last few days, we've been hearing that astronomical numbers of Israelis support the protest movement against Israel's 'housing crisis.' For example, Yediot Aharonot, Israel's largest circulation Hebrew daily, publishes a poll today that says that 91% of the Jewish public supports the protest regarding the housing question, 54% believe it will bring about change in the situation. 77%

This is no Arab spring

There's been talk that has called Israel's 'housing protests' our 'Arab spring.' Raffe Gold says that's just not so. The protestors who are turning out in increasing numbers throughout the country are protesting for their livelihoods. They are able to stand free and tall and shout at the government; they feel their representatives are derelict in their duty to ensure a basic standard of living

Israel's unpatriotic protesters

A Right-wing NGO that was going to participate in Saturday night's 'housing' protest in Tel Aviv - the largest in the country - pulled out because the organizers refused to include our national anthem. My Israel offered on Friday to join the protest, on condition that the national anthem would be sung. However, on Saturday night, it announced that housing protest leader “Daphni Leef’s people

Why you shouldn't back the 'tent city' protesters

In an earlier post, I discussed the 'housing crunch' protesters and gave some thoughts on how those of their demands that are legitimate might be handled. But you should all know that I don't support the protesters. Here's why . Saturday evening we watched Channel 2 news anchor Yonit Levy turn into Marxist activist Rosa Luxemburg and compete with protest organizer Daphni Leef in encouraging and

Ridiculous: 'Social activist' says Netanyahu will start war to get protesters off the street

This is one of the more ridiculous things I've seen recently. A 'social activist' interviewed by Russia Today suggests that Prime Minister Netanyahu is going to start a war to get the protesters off the street. You've got to be kidding.Let's go to the videotape (Hat Tip: Don of a New Day).She seems to have a hard time shutting up to hear the interviewer's questions, doesn't she?It probably goes

Is the New Israel Fund behind the 'housing protest'?

This brief video (sorry, Hebrew only) is suggesting that there are a lot of issues other than housing behind the 'tent cities' springing up all over the country - and that the New Israel Fund is lurking behind the protests in a bid to undermine the Netanyahu government.Let's go to the videotape.Hmmm.

Israel's 'Arab spring'?

You would never know it from reading my blog or from reading much of the English language online media, but the headlines in Israel for the last few days have nothing to do with the 'Palestinians' or the other Arabs or even with Norway. Most of the headlines of late deal with 'tent cities' that have been popping up all over the country in response to our housing shortage, an issue I discussed