{"id":90072,"date":"2016-03-15T07:08:33","date_gmt":"2016-03-15T15:08:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lukeford.net\/blog\/?p=90072"},"modified":"2023-09-05T03:26:07","modified_gmt":"2023-09-05T11:26:07","slug":"haaretz-why-america-has-a-trump-and-israel-doesnt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/?p=90072","title":{"rendered":"Haaretz: Why America Has a Trump and Israel Doesn\u2019t"},"content":{"rendered":"

David Rosenberg writes<\/a>: <\/p>\n

The Donald appeals to the American underclass that\u2019s been ignored. In Israel, those with grievances are the middle class and they prefer more respectable protest candidates.<\/p>\n

Some say Netanyahu is Israel\u2019s Trump. Just like The Donald, Bibi\u2019s been accused of appealing to the voters\u2019 baser instincts, particularly their racist ones. Just like Trump, he is at once part of the establishment and loathed by it.<\/p>\n

Trump is promising to build a wall on the Mexican border. Bibi already built one along nearly all of Israel\u2019s borders, although he didn\u2019t get the Arabs to pay for it.<\/p>\n

But \u00a0even if there are some similarities, Bibi isn\u2019t Israel\u2019s Trump. Israel doesn\u2019t need a Trump.
\nIsrael experienced many of the same economic upheavals America has, but not all of them. Trade liberalization killed off the Israeli textile industry, and unions are much weaker and represent a much smaller part of the workforce than three decades ago.
\nBut that is only half the story. The Mizrahi underclass has made strides over the last decades and is closing the economic gap with the traditional Ashkenazi elite. The monopolies so loathed by the media and policy makers \u2013 the banks, Israel Electric Corporation, the ports and so on \u2013 have ensured good salaries and job security for a great many blue collar and middle class Israelis. Israel\u2019s banks haven\u2019t been allowed to run wild.
\nUnlike America, the Israeli economy has made remarkable progress over the last decade generating new jobs. More and more people are entering the labor force, especially people in the lowest income groups, and unemployment is touching record lows. Income inequality has been growing, but interestingly enough, it\u2019s been widening between the middle and upper classes; at the lower end of the spectrum it has been narrowing.
\nIsrael has a big population of poor. But they don’t see themselves as an economic class but as part of their community – ultra-orthodox, Arabs or Orientals. They for parties that represent their communities, not for Trump-like troublemakers.
\nIf there has been anybody suffering in recent years, it\u2019s the Israeli middle class, but it expresses its displeasure in its own, well-mannered way. No bombastic Trumps for them! Israel\u2019s middle class held polite demonstrations in the summer of 2011 to protest the high cost of living and voted for disruptive but respectable politicians like Yair Lapid in 2012 and Moshe Kahlon in 2015. And, unlike the American underclass, Israel\u2019s middle class is slowly getting its way. The cost of living is gradually moderating, and home prices will follow.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I think this is a foolish column. When I think of Israeli politicians, “respectable” is not the first word that comes to mind.<\/p>\n

Comments to Steve Sailer:<\/p>\n

* Israel\u2019s elite know that their allegiance is to the Israeli people. Immigration, foreign policy, economic policy is is determined by the idea of what\u2019s best for Israel. This is true for the Israeli Left and Right. No need for Trump.<\/p>\n

* Gee, it must be nice to have a country governed by those who generally look out for their own people. Apparently none of us are allowed to have that though because it will lead to a new Hitler.<\/p>\n

* \u201cWell-mannered\u201d and Jews\/Israelis in the same sentence!<\/p>\n

* So it\u2019s okay to be a nationalist in Israel. Patriotic even. Here you\u2019re just a dangerous home-grown bigot who should be watched for signs of terrorism. Seems really fair considering who leads the charge against American nationalists.<\/p>\n

* Israel does not need Trump because their Parliament is 2\/3 Trumps. Every politician in the center\/right in Israel speaks and acts exactly like Trump. 2\/3 of the people of Israel speak exactly like Trump. There was no controversy over Israel building a wall to stop illegal infiltrators for example (a brilliant phrase we should imitate) \u2013 except at Haaretz which is a left wing rag, ignored in Israel itself, although always quoted by the foreign press.<\/p>\n

* I am sure a lot of people in Israel have noticed that Trump sounds like an Israeli politician.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

David Rosenberg writes: The Donald appeals to the American underclass that\u2019s been ignored. In Israel, those with grievances are the middle class and they prefer more respectable protest candidates. Some say Netanyahu is Israel\u2019s Trump. Just like The Donald, Bibi\u2019s … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[29752],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-90072","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-donald-trump"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90072","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=90072"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90072\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":151052,"href":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90072\/revisions\/151052"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=90072"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=90072"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=90072"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}