Those who see themselves as waving the social banner like to quote the OECD report when blaming the government and 'the system' for the high relative poverty rate in Israel, but at the same time reject most, if not all, government plans based on the OECD's recommendations: 1. Increase VAT/sales tax, not income tax (I can already hear the shouts of 'regressive tax' from the Israeli socialists who like to punish work, not spending and who don't know that VAT is 5% higher in Scandinavia). 2. Increase retirement age for women (they retire years earlier than men, but live 7 years longer; raising the threshold is also protested against by socialists here); 3. Increase work-force participation (of Haredi men and Arab women) rather than promote welfare-dependence dumping the costs on the rest. Finally, the fraudulent argument 'there is poverty despite low unemployment, so working doesn't protect from poverty' is refuted by the OECD report. Poverty is linked first and foremost to lack of participation in the work-force, i.e. among those who do not seek employment!

By 2020, only 6 years and 3 weeks from now, 50% of all Jewish first graders will be Haredi. And then you have an ever-increasing amount of Arabs, bedouins, druze and so on. And even among the non-Haredi Jewish population who will be starting school that year, many will not be secular but often religious nationalist, with a blurring of a line from the Haredim. The secular Ashkenazi are fleeing to Berlin, Sydney, New York and London. Israel has other main advantages though: 1. A high fertility rate. Even among seculars. The problem is that they are being outbred by both Arabs and Haredim. 2. High-tech. The Israeli 1% is doing fantastic. Too bad they are not sharing their wealth that well. 3. The security situation. Israel is at this stage a regional superpower in terms of military might. This will allow it to slowly reduce the military budget as a percentage of GDP to more normal levels, although not quite the levels often seen in the wider Western world. Nevertheless, the main threat to Israel is not the Palestinians or Iran. It is the internal demographics.

Jews in the know are leaving asap. The handwriting is on the wall Israel needs a different reality - a world without money, a world where human beings share the resources of the planet without killing each other for them.

strong economy.