Opinion
The people of yesterday
Yair Lapid
Published: 05.08.11, 18:51
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41 Talkbacks for this article
1. ''The People of Yesterday.''
Terry ,   Eilat - Israel   (08.05.11)
Who are the people of yesterday? How about Socialists with 19th Century solutions for the 21st Century? Haven't we seen the failure of Leftist ideas all over the world? Good grief, how many examples of failure do some people need to figure it out? Look at Europe today. Is this an example for us? Even America is paying the price with high unemployment, a collapsed housing market, astronomical debt.
2. Ya'ir Lapid.....well there are af ew good points...
Ya'akov ,   Los Angeles,CA   (08.05.11)
But by and large he does not get it. It is not the old people of yester-year who have said ,"it is a leftist demonstration". It is well-known by who funded it.. Like the evil far-left, anti-sSrael and foreign sponsored New Israel Fund. However, It is time for rightists who love Israel to take it over and demand, left and right together that huge housing construction be implemented in Yehuda and Samaria.
3. I need figures
arik singer ,   Israel   (08.05.11)
OK. i need to know exactly how much these doctors earn. how much indeed does an israeli family of two small children need to "finish the month". i am a kuppat holim doctor who owns an apartment in the center of a major city in israel and have to confess that i do OK. Very OK. Maybe i underspend?
4. Of course!
Mark ,   USA   (08.05.11)
Of course the old timers can't identify with the narcissism of the Tel Aviv'niks..the old timers struggled for existence against malaria and arabs and built a country. The Facebook generation just has to live off of the fruits of somebody else.
5. Problem is that the more they grow the less they will win
Eric ,   Tel Aviv & NY   (08.05.11)
As the protest keeps adding new groups and people the list of demands gets less and less coherent. First it was lower cheese prices Then lower rent and housing. Now it is free education from age three. The Doctors demands were added. The taxi drivers are upset that the tax on diesel was not also reduced. The unions want in on the act too, but their demands are not clear. Then it is moving towards political not social - Kadema wants it to topple Bibi to get them the government again - wait they caused most of the social problems too and they could not get the PM slot in the last election. Now Shas is jumping in and "supporting" the protest. But Shas and its support of entitlements are part of the problem. The more groups the less clear what it will take to bring us back together - will it take the PA demand at the UN or the fights that happen afterwards regardless of the outcome.
6. Advice at 250,000 a month
Ilan ,   Ariel   (08.05.11)
Greatly over rated advice and essentially paid by an arrangement called a cartel. Lapid employers got a sweet deal that locks out competing stations and then pay big bucks to get a sweet talker to cover up the injustice. Hey Lapid. You and your protectizia obtained life are the problem. When will you give us back our country?
7. Another vapid Lapid piece...
SK ,   TLV   (08.05.11)
The protestors are correct that something is awry. But you completely miss the concern with radical leftist/anarchist nature of some of the protest leaders. Should many of their demands be met, the cure will be worse than the disease. Rent control does not work. And when the government is attempting to increase the housing supply, they are against it.
8. Shallow demagoguery.
Jules   (08.06.11)
Not a single figure or law discussed. No fresh building/construction/demonopolization.... no other new ideas. Just undisguised propaganda to topple the hated right-wing Government, which brought REAL peace (not suicidal "peace process"). People, beware of this man. His prospective political party, if ever created, will be significantly more dangerous than even Meretz. It's pure political ambitions "a-la Livni".
9. Massive Judea/Samaria building would solve the problem.
Chaim ,   Israel   (08.05.11)
The biggest expense for Israelis is housing. Massive Judea and Samaria building could create homes for tens of thousands more Israelis within months. Compeititive market pressures would drive home prices down throughout Israel. The prices of other goods and services can be brought down through encouraging robust free market competition. Tax reduction would unleash consumer spending and foster the economic well being of Israelis.
10. Why are so many Israelis in love with Bolshevism?
Terry ,   Eilat - Israel   (08.05.11)
It's incredible, is this some kind of bizarre nostalgia for the ''good old days'' when Israel was a poverty-stricken almost-failed state like our Third World neighbors? Can so many be infatuated with monstrous bureaucracy with millions of insane regulations? And it's all across the political spectrum from Left to Right. Only people from the old Soviet Union know how crazy this is & would not care to repeat the experience. Of course, the ex-Soviet Union was a one-party state - we have the benefit of multi-party bolshevism. But, it's still bolshevism.
11. Re-packaging failure.
Terry ,   Eilat - Israel   (08.05.11)
It doesn't matter what you call it, socialism, leftism, social justice, progressive - it's the same old failed crap. Big gov't. or Statism, Nanny State, cradle to grave, welfare state, it failed in the past, it will fail in the future. Fine, put it on Facebook, as if that changes anything. Even Jihadis & Nazis use Facebook, it's the same totalitarianism. I'm sure Stalin would have loved Facebook too. Lapid, you're such a light-weight in the thinking dept. - didn't you ever take a beginners economic course? Did you ever study Israel's first 40 years as an economic disaster? On one point I agree with you, however. In the Israeli context, it's not about the traditional Left & Right because all the political parties are bolshevik-clones. Netanyahu is rhetorically free market but his solutions stink of the same crony capitalism as all the others although his small steps towards freer markets made a vast improvement in our economy.
12. Ya'ir
David ,   On this planet   (08.05.11)
If it wasn't for the old timers of Yesterday , YOU would not be around to run your mouth today, So be thankful and quit complaining, very soon you will be an old timer yourself if you survive
13. People of Yesterday Today
Wendy ,   Los Angeles USA   (08.05.11)
We're not "the people of yesterday." We're here today and alive and we have a say, too.
14. Progressive Mr. Lapid
ProhphetOfDoom ,   USA   (08.06.11)
How did he get so modern and progressive when all "old-timers" are so obsolete? Where did he learn this new outlook? Amazing metamorphosis of the old guy...
15. free TV's
david ,   new york   (08.06.11)
i don't exactly get how "gimme an apartment" is a movement? how do you propose to get "your" apartment:: do you want to build more in judea and samaria? do you propose taking apartments away from people with more than one? do you propose taking away taxes and regulations so that more can be built and the cost of living can go down? a few years ago a mugger told me to "gimme $20". now i realize he was really just talking politics.
16. Isn't that a lot of grey hair on Yair's head?
Scott ,   USA   (08.06.11)
He doesn't get the Facebook crowd. (I am a historian of the computer revolution, and I understand it better than he does.) Social networking isn't about new ideologies, it's about the speed and extent (and superficiality) of personal contacts. A leftist ideologue paid by leftist organizations funded by the UE is still a leftist ideologue paid by leftist organizations funded by the UE. That doesn't change. The process is called, in Leninist-speak, "co-opting useful idiots." Yair should read a little history. Perhaps the people of yesterday have a few lessons for him.
17. lapid about old people
howard young ,   n.y. usa   (08.05.11)
You are wrong about seniors needing everything to look and feel like the old days..As a senior (79) who is an old time Zionist I recognize that each age has its own culture and way of expressing dissent...As one who has been using a computer for 30 years I can assure you your stereotype of old time zionists is wrong ...We congratulate the youth who seek their own social justice and hope they find fulfillment in their activities and victory for social justice ..by the way social justice is the same in all ages even if we try to bring it about with different methods ..l'shalom and keep complaining..it keeps the discussion alive ..
18. My goodness, this is so boring.
Israeli 2   (08.05.11)
Not waiting for part 2. This in itself is 2 much
19. Dear Mr. Lapid,
Israeli 2   (08.05.11)
You only continue to prove that liberalism is a mental disorder. The boring laughing stock is you, Sir.
20. Last I checked, Today's Israelis...
Lobo ,   USA   (08.06.11)
Are becoming more and more right wing.
21. CHANGE THE SYSTEM!!
galilean ,   Israel   (08.06.11)
Time to end our private capitalist system run by those 20 families. Israel has long suffered from too many middlemen. Monopolies and cartels stifle any true competition, and without competition there is no true capitalism. The system as we know it encourages corruption on all levels. Just ask any small business owner or Moshavnik here. If they don't skim a tiny bit off thru some MINOR but illegal activity, they can't make it at all.
22. Well, "the people of yesterday" won't be voting for you now!
(08.06.11)
23. What an arrogant brat! Yair, you're assuming too much!
(08.06.11)
I used to read and enjoy Yair's articles in the past. Now, Yair has exposed a side of him I didn't know - arrogance. Yair, you should be more careful on how you label people. You do NOT understand people as much as you'd like us to believe and this article proves it. You think that this will get you some more votes, but you're mistaken. You too are "people of yesterday" for the majority of the spoilt brats, hijacking this legitimate protest. These spoilt brats want everything NOW, make impossible demands and ignore the fact that the only civil and democratic way to tell politicians what you think is at the ballots. They want to topple a democratically-elected government before the elections and they are manipulated by Kadima, Meretz, Balad, Hadash and anti-Israeli Anarchists. These "pople of yesterday" see this all too clearly, while the 'people of today" - the pimpled and spoilt brats who want everything now, without a price to be paid, don't. You think that this Anarchist ass-licking will be your ticket to the Israeli politics, "yet, it's not going to happen".
24. #21 Get an education! Stop talking in slogans!
(08.06.11)
25. Most of "people of yesterday" are Sunday Stalinists!
(08.06.11)
26. seniors don't get it
Jerry ,   Jerusalem   (08.06.11)
Mr. Lapids' articled and thoughts about seniors are so idiotic, and amaeturish it dosen't deserve a response, But then again so is the way he has set up the format for his weekly news magazine on Friday evenings, I wonder if he would hold these amazing positions as a writer for Ynet and a Producer/Presenter for Channel 2, with out having a famous father. How else does a man with limited sophomoric abilities get these positions??
27. "The people of yesterday" remember the reason Lapid's
tanya ,   tel aviv israel   (08.06.11)
father became MK. The ideologist of the "Shinui" (a one term party) Poraz picked Tommy Lapid to lead the party because he was a well known journalist. The meteoric rise and fall of "Shinui," meaning change, can be attributed to brainwashing, demagogic, disgusting rethoric of 15! "Shinui" MKs, who, as expected, did not brought any change. Being himself a popular TV host, a journalist Yair uses media exposure for his hidden personal political agenda.
28. protest of 'facebook generation
tiki ,   belgium   (08.06.11)
The 'Facebook generation doesn't understand their 'own protests anymore! Just ONE example: Teachers want 'more money' & students want 'free education'. Question: If education is free, where does the 'more money' come from? It must be 'virtual money, like the 'virtual friends of the facebook generation.
29. Expectations
Dan ,   Yehud   (08.06.11)
You seem to forget that in the "old days" we needed help to buy a first apartment, we did not travel abroad more than once every few years -if that. We did not operate even one car or have a room for each child, and remember most parents slept in the "Salon". If todays throw back to the "give me" generation lived like that, they would realize that they are better off, but as usual, salaries fall behind from time to time. The main problem with the protesters, is they want change today. The Black Panthers started a change that is still going on. A quick fix is worse than no fix, we will only pay more latter.
30. Gimme Gimme
Dan ,   Yehud   (08.06.11)
If everyone went to live in Yerucham, the coffee shops would follow, the theater would come every week, the movie house would be built - and the prices would be more than in Tel Aviv.
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