This is the result of mass-Aliyah with no infrastructure to support it, Haredi breeding like Rabbits and Arab overpopulation. Solutions? God only knows.

stop aliyah and stop breeding arabs and haredis ? :)

What a sad attitude from number 1.,really constructive.

the poverty line is 50% of the median net income. and what is this? what is the median net income? i thought it was around 7,000 - NET. which means anybody subsiding on less than 3,500 NET is below the poverty line ?!?!?!

Duh, the poverty level increase is helped along by the poor economy here,many small business went under because of the war last summer forcing many to file bankruptcy, both business and personal. Some of those who have lost their businesses cannot find suitable jobs as there are not that many out there. The government needs to encourage foreign investment and investment by the rich Israeli people in Israel which will create jobs which will lower the poverty level. We also must stopn encourageing families to have so many children that they cannot provide for by themselves without depending on the state to support them. It is all well and good to have 4 or more kids but only if you can support them on your own without relying on the Government to pay for your offspring, the government here doesnot have the money for that.

What the article forgot to mention is that the majority of the poor are Israeli-Arab families who are denied equal opportunity and access to good jobs

The poverty % is the result of 3 decades of Likud and Avoda govt policies aimed at 'free market' reform. You can have capitalism with a civilized face, but it comes at price. The high taxes Israëlis are subjected too should be directed at social justice, education, health, housing etc. But the govt's prefer to spend it on the military, on burocracy and perks for 'managers' and 'leaders'. # 1 is blunt and one- sided but he has a point as well.

You are right and wrong. Statistically many of the poor are Arabs. However, as someone who does lots of business with Arabs I can tell you that many of them do not report some or all of their income, and therefore it appears that their income is low when in fact it is not. Go into many Arab villages and look at the cars and houses. I think that says it all.

The knesset and the min.of labor hate the workers.There are laws that are not enforced and the workers suffer. No one cares about the low-income workers and you can see how the politicians socialize with the rich. The unions do nothing for the workers. Enough writing about this subject as nothing will be done to remedy the situation.The poor will have large families.Certain segments of society will never go to work.No one will punish the companies who rob from the workers.The Labor court should be expanded and given the right to jail people.They should not only jail the owners and management,but the accountants and book keepers who carry out the thievery.The time a worker should wait for his trial at the labor court should be no longer than six months and the guilty should pay all the court costs.

is defined arbitrarily. Also, folks who "work" by studying Torah steada making a living are also counted as poor.

Poverty generally strikes people without proper skills. Get an education and you will see that skills will pay the bills. In regards of the Arab population can they get jobs in the Gulf Arab states? There is always demand for working people there If there are no opportunities in Israel people should move where the money and jobs are rather than complain.

Poverty is defined as half of the median income. for example: if everyone in israel were to make a different salary from 1 shekel up to 7 million shekels, the median income would be 3.5 million shekels. one quarter of the people by definition would be under the poverty line even though some of them were making 1.75 million shekels a month. the socialist solution would be to make everybody earn 10 shekels a month. that way the median income is 10 shekels a month and NOBODY is under the poverty line (of 5 shekels). not one soul! the question is under which system are more people better off: system A where only 10 people are making 10 shekels or less, or system B where all people are making 10 shekels and no one is under the poverty line. establishing a "poverty line" based on half of the median income is an artificial invention. it has nothing to do with the cost of living, cost of food, cost of basic services... it should be called a jealously line, because in an even distribution of incomes (some more than the median, some less) automatically 25% of the people are going to have less than the other 75%.

Business Data Israel February. 2006 “Just eighteen families earn one-third of Israel’s commercial revenues, totalling approximately 44 billion dollars. This revenue counts for 32 percent of income within the State of Israel, but does not reflect the families’ inherited wealth, savings or any income from investments outside the country. The families’ earnings increased four percent from the previous year. The Labor party responded to the statistics, saying they were proof that former finance chairs and current Acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Likud Chairman Benjamin Netanyahu parcelled off state-owned industries to cronies during their pushes for privatization. “It’s no coincidence that of the 18 families, at least seven are considered Olmert’s close friends,” the party said in a statement. . It stated the number of poor Israelis since 2000 has increased by 600,000 to a total of 1.6 million people in 2005.”

Doesn't anyone else get tired of listening to the "blame game?" If Arabs in Israel are as poor as you claim, of course the Israelis are responsible. Israel is responsible for the death of creativity and science in the Arab World. Israel is responsible for the dictators and lousy leadership that has stolen millions of dollars from the Arabs of Israel, Gaza and Judea and Samaria. Life is so simple when you have someone to blame.