And, people are right to complain about the high cost of living in Israel. But, the leaders of this protest movement ignore WHY we suffer from such a high cost of living & why wages for many are so low. Of course, they ignore the real causes because they don't give a damn about real causes. They don't give a damn about real solutions either. They have an agenda. That agenda is not about solutions but about politics, specifically, regime change. We know who finances this ''protest'' - much of the financing is from the anti-Israel New Israel Fund. Other financing is from NGO's in the pay of our European ''friends'' ..... Tagging along like the miserable opportunist she is, we have Tzippi Livni. She still thinks that King Obama will topple Netanyahu for her & make her his governor. This is the last gasp of the Left. Can anyone tell me why the protesters have nothing to say about our supermarket semi-monoplies that rip us off every time we shop? Why no protests against the inefficient Electric Co. when we all know how this monopoly rips us off? Strange, I don't hear complaints about the bureaucratic mess that makes construction in Israel a bad joke. How about our banking industry? All we hear is ''Netanyahu'' - Personally, I don't like con artists, I don't like to be manipulated & buried in BS. I'm sick of slogans & rhetoric.

... are anarchists.

The left may be hitching a ride but the crisis is real and the demonstrators are our children, our soldiers, our students, us. If the current government can provide affordable housing for the working and middle class all power to them. But they better start quick because even if you, Mr. Misgav, don't identify with them (I guess you've got an apartment and can afford to help your children get one) the past weeks have proved that most of the country does identify with them. Last night's polls showed that they receive wide support, even among Likud voters. And if the trains hadn't stopped running for safety reasons last Saturday, there'd have been even more than 300,000 out demonstrating. Read the writing on the wall.

I wanted to come and praise Haim Misgav for saying it like it is. Terry, 99% of what you write is great. You basically said it all. Only disagreement is re: electric prices--yes, electric workers NEED to limit their use--we are all subsidizing them BUt we too need to learn how to limit our own use. Let's open windows and turn off a/c units. Fans are good! Let's only light up rooms that have people in it. ( my fan is on, my a/c is off)

Beware of self hating Jews. Isaiah warned that great destruction of our nation, Israel, would come from within. Well there they are. This anarchist element concomitant with Islam, which is notorious for revising history, for trying to revise the Torah, from which the Muslims contrived and vomited out the hate-filled Qoran, has created intractible aand insideous enemies.

The organizers may have their own agenda, but the idea appeals to everyone, and will become mainstream. The idea is that every citizen should have a way to save within a certain amount of time, enough to buy an apt. He should be able to live on the outskirts in cheap housing, get to work in the center without sitting in gridlock paying a fortune in gasoline. He should be able to buy products that , if manufactured by monopolies, have prices that are controlled by pricing commissions.

Sorry sir, but from what planet do u come from exactly?? to be able to write such a 'smachtout" paper... please, go on lecturing in your Netanya Academic College,,,Thanks to Ynet to publish this comment/////

Your college exists because previous governments broke up the Council for Higher Education monopoly on doling out admissions to degree-awarding institutions. Now it's time to do the same for housing and basic foods, among other things. What's "wicked" and "malicious" about that?

BUT IT IS NECESSARY! For too long a time the government support given to the Israel Lands Authotity has bled the mortgage-payers hopes and pockets dry. Such high land pricies as we see in Israel are unjustified and do not allow a wage earner sufficient freedom to live properly and comfortably. In many cases being demonstrated in Tel-Aviv, the past renters can no longer afford to rent and have to live outdoors and charitably use the toilets and showers of the surrounding families.

Beware of Piggish Communism!!

Haven't seen you write for a while. I was concerned. good to see you well.

I knew what is this protest about. They both wrote that the protesters has move from housing problem to removing Bibi.Since the protest is directed by Hadash/Kadima, nothing will come out of it. Mil products can be bought from EU much cheaper. Why holocoust survivers should pay (if they can) to farmers help. Doctors should get NOTHING, or they should be stopped working on the side. Housing is the PROBLEM. Bring professionals to build apartments. It seems the land is extremely cheap in Israel. Erdan bought the best lot for 750000 sh. In US the price of land is half of the price of the whole house on that land.

Bravo Haim Misgav, great column, I agree with every word!!!!

this far right coalition is not worth saving. Go to the ballots and elect a sensible center-right government that can function for the good of the State and lift the status of Israel back to its old high standards.

Perhaps every word Haim Misgav writes here is true. Perhaps there are major elements behind the strikers who have a hidden agenda. This does not however mean that all the demands of the strikers are illegitimate. 1) There is a real problem with affordable housing in Israel. The real estate bubble has contributed to this. But it existed before this also. 2) There is monopoly- concentration in certain industries in such a way as to raise prices for the Israeli consumer 3) There are legitimate demands of certain sectors for improved conditions and pay. The doctors, the teachers are probably first among these. 4) There is a sense of unfair allocation of funds to sectors of the population who have strong representation in the Knesset. The 'ordinary middle level secular Israeli' has no such representation.

And so they are, but not in the way that Y. Lapid thinks they are.

Haim Misgav has taken "eema chad horit" to mean women who have gone to sperm banks.... actually, Mr Misgav most divorced women consider themselves "eemot chad horiot" because their ex's are deadbeat dads. My mother is a divorcee and identified as a single-mother parent because my father didn't pay a shekel to support us and was generally a bad influence on our lives. But an dinosaur like yourself probably doesn't understand that; you probably think the Rabbi ensured that my mother received something in her ghet? Actually that wasn't option, thank god for the Supreme Court ruling and she got divorced via a state court. Then "Daddy" decided he preferred life in Europe to child-support. But since time immemorial the single and successful mother has always been an easy target for ultra-conservatives because they represent what they fear most; that women don't need men and children can be better off without their fathers (not in all cases obviously; there is that minority of people with successful marriages)

You worry about the US and stop lecturing us...

No need for concern, even the hospital in Eilat was unable to put an end to me, try as they did. Thanks, looking forward to your creative writing as well.

As you and some others have noted, there are, indeed, some legitimate demands. As you also noted, these are a mere token of the welfare-state ambitions to which the protest has been redirected. The economy has been quite good of late, strong and low unemployment; a good pie. I don't want to teach undergrad economics here. It's natural that when the pie looks plentiful and good, people want more of it. Unfortunately, it doesn't expand to meet demand. It only expands through productive work and marketable, efficient and profitable output--always falling far short of demand. For the benefit of Leftist readers, that's why people have to pay for things instead of being "entitled" to them as in the fantasy utopia you're protesting to achieve. Also when the pie is plenteous and good, it's much more difficult for the monopolies to defend their need for a monopoly, subsidies and other protektzia. Such is now the case. So, I suspect, with a bit of investigation you could probably find that, in addition to the sources you named, exporters' money is also a significant contributor to backing these basically anti-government protests. It's the Left that champions manipulation of the economy, subsidies, monopolies and protektzia--much of the policy imported directly from the old USSR (long before the more recent immigration). Exporters want the shekel to weaken because they sell their products abroad and would get more shekalim when they exchange their foreign income to use in the domestic theater--for example, paying employees. Cost of employees (and domestic materials and other domestic resources) goes down relative to their income generated abroad. So the exporters as well as the various subsidized and protected monopolies (including construction and banks) would love to see the Left back in control. הָעֵדֶר (Hellenist: hoi polloi) are useful idiots. I saw that you remarked that Pres. Obama couldn't deliberately be that stupid. I beg to differ. NEVER underestimate the power of stupid. I'm persuaded that you're mistaken about this being the last gasp of the Left, however. You cannot kill an irrational fantasy built on the power of stupid. Keep up the great posts. :-) Paqid Yirmeyahu Paqid 16, The Netzarim, Ra'anana, Israel Israeli Torah-observant Jew: Teimani, Baladi, Dor Dai Advocate for Discrete Logic as Hermeneutic Halakhic Authority Welcoming all who choose to keep Torah (When questions to me go unanswered, they have refused to post it. Find our reply in our Web Café at www.netzarim.co.il)

Its all in the midset of the schnorrer and quite simply it doesnt matter what uniform they wear. I dont care if they cloth themselves in 16th century garb or the latest designer schmattes...they are schnorrers. It never ceases to amaze me how people have the tendancy of trying to be other peoples accountant. At a moments notice they will do a quick calculation as to what the other person earns and spends. I have news for you...The more time you spend being envious of anyone, the less time you have to take care of yourself. And so it is, that we have a collection of midfit schnorrers who are always pissing on themselves in spite and envy. That about sums my general feeling as to these demos. These demos are being paid by NGO's who want regime change and so they schlepp along the useless ignorant masses of schnorrers who are looking to vent some steam. Its bogus crap. Israel is doing very well..If you cant understand that reality you understand nothing.

and Stalinists

if you write this article only to support the goverment ,,sorry to tell you are the worst of all . you speaks without seeing or asking or listining or thinking

I can raise your wages by any percentage, say "x," you wish. The gov't would love it, the wealthy would love it, the monopolies would love it, the exporters would love it. And it's probably going to happen!!! (Yet again.) Deflate the shekel by x+20%. More shekalim per paycheck, but your paycheck buys less than before. That's essentially what you're--unknowingly--protesting for. Now why should you not take that deal? There's no quicker, more cunning, way to take money out of every citizen's pocket than deflating the currency. It's making the rich extravagantly rich all over the world... at your expense. Paqid Yirmeyahu Paqid 16, The Netzarim, Ra'anana, Israel Israeli Torah-observant Jew: Teimani, Baladi, Dor Dai Advocate for Discrete Logic as Hermeneutic Halakhic Authority Welcoming all who choose to keep Torah (When questions to me go unanswered, they have refused to post it. Find our reply in our Web Café at www.netzarim.co.il)

''experts'', whose answer to Israel's problems is to deny they exist. No Al, Israel is not doing perfectly fine in spite of your wishing it was so. Israel needs major reforms.

For all TB-ers who think this is "anarchy" or "liberal" or "leftist", google the facts: Recent surveys show that 87% of the population supports the demonstrators, and 85% support the doctors. In addition, if elections were held now, all three major parties would get the exact same number of mandates. Do you think that 87% of our population is anti-government or wanting handouts? It sounds like you're the ones pushing your agenda. As Terry wrote, the housing crisis is real. Most of us work all our lives, 45 hours a week (not 40 like in the rest of the free world) and hope we live long enough to see our pensions, which are pushed further and further away.

Mr. Misgav and those he attacks have something in common. They don't know what anarchism is. In Stalinist Russia? Give me a break. Back to school, you ignoramus.

reality ,that some people have nowhere to live,you understand nothing. That doesn t take away,that i wish you very sincerely a speedy recovery,and may you be able to join your children in Israel. Don t give up!

The problem is not the protesters. I suggest looking in the mirror to see where the real fault lies.. They are protesting the fact that wealth is far too unequally distributed within your society. Unfortunately, this is all too common within our so-called economic system. What is the wealth distribution in Israel? Do the wealthy get unequal tax breaks and benefits? While medical residents and teachers get crumbs? Why can't a young couple afford rent, food and other necessaries? If you are paid $1000.00 a week because you work hard and contribute to society, will you work harder for 10 times that amount? Contribute more? And work harder still for 1000 times that amount? Where does the greed stop? In Israel, 20 families are reported to receive and control the overwheming majority of the wealth. Isn't this the heart of the protest? Calling the protesters 'anarchists' or 'Islamo-anarchists' or 'Communists' is meaningless except to the small and weak-minded. And reading these comments, it seems you have plenty of company.