In her response to Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s opening address in which he presented his new administration, opposition leader Shelly Yacimovich called on the prime minister “to call it by its real name, capitalism,” accusing the incoming administration of ignoring the middle and lower class, the forgotten; those citizens without representation in the new administration.
Yacimovich condemned the fact that the prime minister has never even hinted to the fact that perhaps portions of the socialist vision for the economy may be correct and that perhaps, his capitalist ways may be in err, even in part, continuing by expressing her profound concern over the growing number of poor in Eretz Yisrael, the growing number of working poor, and the absurd situation of the upper middle class and wealthy who will be represented exclusively in the new government at the expense of the remainder of the country, the majority of the nation.
“Yes, there will be two nations for two people, you and us, the wealthy and those struggling to survive” Yacimovich explained.
“This is a government of exclusion, exclusion of chareidim, minorities, Arabs, the poor, the majority of the nation…What did you accomplish with a government without chareidim. Inducting a few chareidim will repair the irreparable damage created by the chasm that exists today.”
“Sharing the burden is not just about inducting a few chareidim at some time in the future, which will most likely never occur, but it stands for equality on basic issues”.
(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
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12 Responses
Can’t really argue with that!
Hilariously populist garbage! The Haredim aren’t the working class!
Mrs Shelly Yechimovitch, although a total left-wing Laborite, has proven herself time and again to be honest, open and broad-minded. Whenever a vote (for or against Chareidim) came up in Knesset, she always decided according to her conscience and beliefs after hearing both sides of the arguments. She surprises many (right and left wingers) with her honest record on voting, never voting just because it is popular or expected. Together with the chareidim she will be a powerful opposition, and eventually a strong candidate for Prime Minister.
Love the big shot talkers…..after the climax they know the script. Never heard her speak like this before.
It is true that Bibi’s economic training and trend is towards Capitalism and the reduction of welfare and social programs. Not sure if the other side of the coin will produce better results (look at Greece and the USA deficient)
When did capitalism become something bad? I hope the Frum world isn’t hopping onto the communist bandwagon. I believe that was already tried someplace and it didn’t exactly work out all that well.
Labor-Hareidim-Arabs
Likud’s worse nightmare. After 30 years of the Kenesset having a 90-30 split between right and left, so much that most of the elections were between Likud and Likud breakaways – Lapid and Bennett have created a situation in which Labor finally has a serious chance or returning to power.
the truth is with Shelly, but we must realize that it was under Sharon’s government that Bibi was brought in to dismantal the socialistic structure and make it into a capitalistic one. Bibi did this very nicely bringing much prosperity to Israel, but causing a large difference between the haves and have nots (similar to China and Russia).
The chareidi party, UTJ, is in desperate need of new leadership. The walkout they staged during Bibis speech yesterday accomplished nothing except making them look foolish.
#2- the women are nothing to you??? are women second class citizens that they do not count as working to you??
To all the pro-capitalists above, and even though I agree with you on economics, please note that:
The Hareidim, in both Israel and the United States, support liberal welfare policies, which the coalition opposes in Israel. Indeed, we invented “entitlements” and convinced the goyim to give liberal aid to the poor – the traditional Anglo-American policy was giving nothing to the poor until they had spent all the assets, and with nothing but the clothes on their back would have to move to the “poor house” (which was basically a prison for the poor – where they could work at hard labor in return for food). Giving tsadakkah was our idea.
The Right has stabbed the Hareidim in the back by drafting yeshiva students. One has to expect that the Hareidim will look to the other side, considering that the Hareidim have always been in favor of the economics of the left.
Basically the Socialist idea is that you milk the business class and redistribute the wealth to the less fortunate. The Chareidi position of forced Yissachar-Zevulun dove tails real well with this. Perhaps, if only they can create a more moderate Socialism, one that is not secularist, and pro-Arab, then they can extend their ideas beyond the 18 Knesset members that they have. But to align themselves with the pro-arab, anti-religious labor party will drive a wedge between the rank-and-file, who don’t buy into this and the political elitist, who will do anything to return to the seat of power.
If frum Jews rejected “milk the business class and redistribute wealth” how come almost all of Boro Park’s representatives are Democrats?
The Labor party can drop its anti-religious ideology. Given that the Dati Leumi is in solid control (or soon will be) of all religious instituitons, I believe there will be renewed popularity from respect for religious minorities, among the the Hareidi who are finally realizing they are a minority. Given that we see eye-to-eye with the Arabs on many “hot” social issues, there is plenty of room to work together.