On Tuesday, when it’s time for Israel to elect its new House of Representatives – the Knesset, and a new Prime Minister, my ballot won’t have Benjamin Netanyahu’s name on it.
In the past few weeks, in the midst of the whole Netanyahu-controversial -Congress-speech, it seemed as if loving Israel equals loving Netanyahu. Social networks and the media used the Israel-US relationship as a metonymy to the feud between Netanyahu and Obama, and Netaynahu’s speech in front of the congress, to the dismay of the White House, turned into “Israel’s attempt to defend itself” or “Israel’s blunt provocation.”
At this time, if you were pro-Israel, you showed your support for Netanyahu, because Netanyahu was Israel. At this time, he was glorified and admired like never before, and even I joined the festival and shared some admirable images of him on this blog’s Facebook page.
The reason this whole speech was so controversial was its timing, two weeks prior to the elections in Israel. The White House asked Netanyahu to either postpone or precede the speech, while stating that no head-of-state is allowed to make speeches before the Congress so close to elections in his or her country. Netanyahu insisted, stating that timing is of the essence. Ever since, and until the actual speech, the reasons were a bit forgotten, and the whole “pro/against Israel” arguments took control.
The speech was impressive. Even more than impressive. And not surprisingly, it scored Netanyahu some points at the polls. But the one thought that came to my mind as the US Congress, and the world, stood on its feet and clapped hands with enthusiasm, was: I wish he would talk like that in front of us as well.
Watching Israel’s reflection on foreign media and social networks made me realize that the Netanyahu many of you see is not the Netanyahu I see. Here, we don’t get emotional and powerful speeches about the bright future Israel can have, or about what an amazing country Israel is. We don’t get an enthusiastic Prime Minister, dedicated to make Israel the best place to live. We don’t get a stubbornly confident Prime Minister who fights for us no matter what.
Here, we get nothing. In the past 9 years, since Netanyahu was first elected (not including his term in 1996,) life here became more and more impossible. I’m not referring to our security, we’ve got the best army in the world, and I always know I can sleep safely at night. The monthly expenses that kept growing and growing as opposed to our monthly salaries that remained the same, turned life in Israel to one expensive nightmare.
Young folks like myself can’t even dream of purchasing a house of an apartment, and every time I go to the supermarket, my head starts spinning when the cashier shows me how much my dozen basic groceries cost. If we want to see a movie, we prepare to spend 25 dollars, at least, when a ticket cost about 10 dollars, and the popcorn cost the same. A new car costs at least 20,000 dollars. Add to that schools, bills ad fees, and you get an impossible situation.
A recent poll posted on Ynet showed that 41% of the Israeli public are in growing debt because of the “expensiveness of living.” This, to me, brings us right to the verge of our boiling point, if changes won’t be made soon.
I’ve recently asked a friend of mine, who made Aliyah last year, if the security threat can get her to move back to Canada. She said that she is not scared one bit of it. The only thing that will get her to move back, she said, is the inability to financially support oneself.
The big, powerful speeches are impressive, but this is not what I’m looking for in my Prime Minister. The security threat will always be here, in my opinion, and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is not going to resolve anytime soon. What will be gone soon is Israel’s middle class, which keeps shrinking. Life is much more than Iran or Abbas. I don’t know if someone else will make things better here, but I do know that the current situation is unbearable. Change is a must.
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