The failure of Israel's education system to require that every student have a high school diploma, or meet minimal standards in mathematics and science, may well be its downfall. That there is a whole population of men who avoid work and make their families depend on charity and use the need to "study Torah" as an excuse is a black mark of both Israel and Jews. Thousands of Israeli children born into Charedi families are being denied the opportunity to learn about and benefit the world. Israel's feckless politicians— all of them— are to blame.

How did we reach a situation where even Jerusalem is considered a “settlement”? When Israel annexed East Jerusalem, expanded the area of "Jerusalem" and built Ma'ale Adumim and others. THAT'S when we reached that situation.

the problem in israil is different ... it is becouse they can not bear..can not wait .. i think lebanon and cast lead is the result of this problem but nothing is changed in the strategy of both hizballa and hamass .... and so iran

Its good news!!! The author's head is in the sand. The reason that only in Israel all Jews don't graduate high school is because Zionism is doing its job. Israel is the only place in the world where Jews can afford to be normal people, even if "normal" means some will be poor or drunks or slackers who don't study and have to be laborers and uneducated unskilled factory workers, or pickpockets - or even full-time "Torah scholars" with no actual job. In Israel, Jews don't have to be doctors or lawyers or extra-sharp businessmen to survive as minorities - who have to be just a little more clever than everybody else to compete. Like Bialik predicted about the 1st Jewish policeman arresting the 1st Jewish prostitute - the proof that a real Jewish State will have arrived. In Israel, even the anti-semites are Jewish, like pro-Hamas leftists and Gush Shalom quislings. It comes with being a Jewish State. What's abnormal in Israel is that anti-state traitors are treated like decent citizens practicing free speech - THAT is the real threat to Israel - misunderstanding democracy. The democratic, freedom-loving USA would NEVER tolerate such conduct, certainly not in wartime. Our laws ban treason and sedition. Israel needs to wake up, if it also wants to see its 200th birthday. Don't worry about the diplomas - besides, Albert Einstein never graduated high school.

The internal situation in Israel is horrifying. Do not misunderstand, when I'm in Israel I have a great time.. seriously great time. But peoples attitudes are certainly not anything like 6-7 years ago, or like when I left in 1991. Young people are so ignorant it's amazing. I've met Israelis who didn't know Arabs lived in Yafo, who didn't know that Ashdod was a philistine capital, that play loud music on buses without a care and are rude to people who ask them to turn it down. It's an anti-social disease that is spreading fast. Israel is a country filled with friendly and great people, but there is a FAST growing undercurrent of people who are ignorant, outright stupid and extremely anti-social to anyone outside 'their pack'. I was told a story about kids going to dog fights. A person there complain about this torture (not to mention the mental psychosis the kids must have to enjoy it!). The police said: "What do you want us to do? Shall we tell them to go somewhere else?" When the police force themselves do not care that teens are torturing animals, and do not see the massive implications this has on Israeli society, I worry about the future greatly. It's not just education of maths, science.. it's education about how to be a great individual but respectful of the greater society!

The French System of Primary ans secondary schools has collapsed. the best Education systems are those of South KOREA and FINLAND. A study of 25 different educational systems reached this conclusion. Excellent Teachers produce Excellent Pupils. Excellent . The reciprocal sentence Excellent pupils do not produce Excellent Teachers is not at all necessarily true. The study mentioned above showed that Teachers chosen in the TOP 10 to 15% of Students having a Master Well paid and above all genuinely RECOGNIZED socially , in The Newspapers , in the Media,Teachers receiving grants for training in other countries, in Univerties known for their excellency when the pupils they have trained are more successful , Teachers having a common salary PLUS An additional salary for excellenct .....these are the basic rules for a successful Educational System. I hope that Prime Minister NETANYAHOU will not allow Privatization of Schools to Prevail. In France, 800000 pupils going to Public schools have an additional teaching paid by the parents yo Private Teachers belonging to a Private System of Professors or Teachers not having always the required qualifications. The core problem of Any educational System is the adherence to Moral Values including the Moral Value of Education. Knowing an Excellent Hebrew is is the first building block. Knowing The History of Judaism and the History of the Jewish peple including its religious roots is the second buiding block. Once a child has acquired theses Building Blocks and the elementary rules of arithmetic and geometry, the whole word will belong to him. Freud said that The child who is loved by his or her Father and Mother The Whole World will belong to him. To love includes first to care. Albert Camus said Who is poor ? The Man who has no History , The man who has not been told the History of his family, of his Nation , of the World. In This case, he has to build it again from Scratch. Aaron APPENFELD has clearly shown in his books how difficult it was to try to build from scratched. He has been saved by the History of his ancestors which has enabled him to look to the Present and Future of Israel. This article is really very IMPORTANT. I congratulate Ithak Ben Israel for his insightful point of view. Mankind is really more than ever doing a race between Education and Catastrophy. Aaron CIECHANOVER and Avram Herschko the Nobel PRIZE WINNERS alerted the Israeli Policy Makers immediately after receiving their Nobel Prize of Chemistry about the terrible situation of the Israeli Educational System. .

Talker #1 says 'Oh it's the charedim'. Take a walk and visit your local chiloni schools - but be sure to bring a bodyguard (you'll need one) and don't expect to find much education going on. An education system that applies no discipline, that finds crumbling facilities everywhere, and provides almost no help for any student that falls behind in the slightest - condemning them to a lifetime of failure. The Israeli education system stinks. At least in the charedi system some very dedicated people TRY, even though the Israeli education system only gives them 60% of the resources the chiloni school gets. This system is in serious trouble. http://mpaths.com

CoDSwolloP! "Israel is the only state in the world where 100% of Jews do not have high school diplomas. " Utter BS!!!!!!! Where I'm from plenty of Jews - including myself - do not have high school diplomas!!! (And so F*!~en wot?>!)

Jews tried harder when they were in diaspora. Now we're home and we feel we can do whatever we want. Drive like crazy, stab people over parking space, steal and rob old ladies. The politicians think everything is still OK and they can neglect schools and universities. In Technion there are a lot of students who immigrated. They still feel as a minority, so they try harder. But not everyone should have an academic degree, someone still has to drive trucks and build homes.

is in a canoe, up the river with no paddles, and the falls are fast approaching with no rescue services in sight. The growing population of ultra orthodox freeloaders and charity seekers who thrive off this warped political system will eventually reach a point where the normal secular section of society will not have the wish nor the means to continue supporting them. Society as we know it today will simply breakdown. You can not go to war with a holy book in your hand, a rifle is a better bet. The education system is in total collapse. Kids are unruly and they have no respect and they continue as adults to act in an unruly fashion and this manifests itself in every day situations, on public transport, on the road and in public places in general. The law is flouted by all and sundry on a daily basis, parking, smoking, phones in cars, cars on the beach etc. no one cares, least of all the enforcement authorities.The outcome will be inevitable.If we do not produce a leader who will change the system which in turn will change society we shall be doomed. The end is in sight and time is short. The citizen who does not obey and respect the law must be made to pay dearly for it, either through his pocket, or by a gaol sentence, a heavy one at that. There is no other way. When people have no self respect there can be no respect for the law and the State. Our streets and parks and public places are disgusting. Every building contractor thinks he can dispose of his rubbish wherever he wants to at the expense of the environment, dogs, both stray and otherwise use our streets as public toilets, until a dog owner is fined a thousand dollars for this it will not stop. He who is caught talking on the phone in the car must go to gaol for a month and have his car confiscated for another month.In a true democracy first you respect the law and the State and then, and only then, you receive privileges, not the other way around in our so called "democracy". Time for intense soul searching has arrived and in wake of this an about face that will shake us all up. Indeed the point of no return is fast approaching.

Why is Israel constantly being called a state? Is this not to pacify the Arab world, including Iran etc? Is it not the Jewish Country? Whether or not the peoples around you do not like it one bit, Israel is and should be called what it is - the Jewish Country of the Jew, which it well is and will be for ever!!!

Edukashun, educashion, education. Enough already. Today, all you really need is to read fast and use Google and Wikipedia. The rest comes from a healthy dose of scepticism and self-questioning - which are in abundant supply even among stree-sweepers and prostitures.

Not knowing that Arabs lived in Yafo or Philistines lived in Ashdod 3000 years ago (not the same site as modern Ashdod btw) is nothing compared to the widespread belief that there was this country called Palestine, inhabited by a nation called Palestinians, and the Jews just came along and took it away.

Bravo. After the required hareidi bashing, you offer a crystal clear analysis of the social ills that are rampant here. I would speculate however that the roots of this sickness lie in the Udi generation of children brought up in a secular "new Jew" format, with no or insufficient discipline, inflated egos, no concept of authority, ( let din v'let dayan) and divorced from their native culture. I dont for a minute believe that the religious have much better public matters, but in terms of recovery of some derech eretz, the hope is with the religious, who carry a concept of something above. It is also no great logical jump to connect the less than benign neglect by the white european born leadership of the poor, and often religious immigrants from the east , with the dregs of society that issued from the slums and development towns.

Bnei Brak and Mea Shearim are the worst offenders of all I stated. How do you explain that.

I think the rot is fairly well distributed. Look at the criminality rampant in government and public office, the Bolshevist crap in the Histadrut, and what goes on at any central bus station. With some discount for anti semitism look at what the world travel industry thinks of Israeli tourists. Compared to the Japanese, we are like subhuman. My point is that the wider society has very little glue of social bonding from which polite manners and care for the other stem. The religious have a natural cohesion, a concept of public entity, and of a greater being to answer to. In terms of point of no return, the dati of all flavors stand a better chance of catching some mussar from the Japanese than do Joe sabra. It may not be well excercised, but the essential ingredients are there. Peace Bro.

America is moving away from supporting the rogue Jewish State, and beginning to recognize, that unless a State is created within Palestine for the Palestinian people, that is equal in every respect to the Jewish State, peace in the Middle East will never happen. This movement is well on the way in America. If the Jews attack Iran, the State of Israel will loose the support of the American poeple, and will cease to exist. See the latest proposal for the "NEW" Mandate as an example. Found on this site: http://assemblyoftrueisrael.com