What do I mean? I mean that the issues are real. The leaders of the protest are not real. The object of the protest is political, meaning to bring down Netanyahu. They don't actually care about solutions, about reforms. If you examine the real views of the protest leaders, you wouldn't give them the time of day. If you examine the financing behind the protests, you can easily see that they have an agenda that the vast majority have rejected. Having said that, the issues are for real, they need attention & practical realistic solutions. The strangest thing about this protest movement & its anti-Netanyahu agenda is that Netanyahu, whatever his other faults, is a proponant of the kind of free market solutions we need. My guess is that the ''tycoons'' (I like oligarchs as a better description) are worried about reforms proposed by Netanyahu. Our ''oligarchs'' don't want changes that challenge their dominance of the economy. So, the super-rich crony capitalists support ''social justice'' because it serves their interests. But, we can't compare our society with that of a country like Iran as the author does. Apples & oranges, so to speak. I'll add one more point, we should be angry at these phoney protest leaders for hijacking issues for a phoney agenda, under false pretenses. Very angry.

drives a second-hand toyota corrola? mah kesher? strange.

The author by comparing Israel to Iran's revolution, is, as one comment said, comparing apples to oranges. Israel is unique...having no oil, but an economy which has made neaby economies look sad in comparison. Lets not forget why Israel was created to begin with.It is a refuge for we Jews..from 2,000 years of recurring holocausts. From the burning of the temple, to the pogroms, to the Holcaust AND the expulsion of M.E. Jews...it is the ONLY country where we can fight back as Jews, and not soldiers (CONSCRIPTED in another people's army. Yes, 1m Jews fought during WW2 but 7m Jews were butchered w/o mercy by Germans and their supporters. We were locked out of the world, but locked into the gas chambers. That says it all. Fortunately, my entire family fled the Ukraine in the late 1800s and early 1900s. We DID NOT suffer directly. Hitler had every Jew in his agenda of elimination..we, defined as having 1 Jewish grandparent. Affilation to Judaism, was insignificant to him. It was about "blood" lines. Converted Jews and Jews converting out, were killed with the same gusto. Hitler had planned to murder all 500,000 Pales Jews..and the 500,000 in England and 5.5m in the USA. There were few protest during WW2..as this was not per se only, a "Jewish" war. Whether Jewish scientists should have given priority to saving more Jews is for another post as well as the bombings of the camps. Israel is a democracy..guys....and there are ways of enhancing its economy, legally. The protestors, mainly leftists, had their opportunity through elections. They still can from a party (s), to influence policy. Cottage cheese and baby strollers...come on. There are people in the US who want to stop the 3b in military credits ( and low interest loans). Some people think our support for Israel is undermining our own security. These protests are at a horrible moment in history, when the entire world will demand a Pales state to the 67 lines,with E. Jerusalem, the rightof return, and no permanent end to the conflict that is enforceable. There is a TV program wherein the father refers to his son as a "dummy" constantly. Well, the protestors are collectively dummies and dangerous besides. This is outrageous..and destructful. Hitler, Goering, Himmler, Heydrick and the SS are laughing in their graves. The Pales leadership..is foaming at their mouths, knowing how divisive Israel is. Israel's budget is warranted guys...it is necessary int his violent part of the world. During WW2, England was bombed daily..its people livingi in subways...in Russia, the pop. ate shoe leather. Oh, Glenn Beck may be on the right, and a libertarian..but unlike most US Christians, he fully supports Israel, as does John Hagee. To Israelis: wake up and smell the truth. Ask 1m Orthodox why they refuse to work? Why wont they join their brethren in the army or othercivic duties? Why dont THEY share the burdern? During WW2, their beards were burned by the Geramns..while being laughed at. Auschwitz and Sobibor were filled with their silence while dying. Yes, Israel needs change..it needs to grow up.

Over the years there have been many issues in Britain that have some value but have been hijacked by people with dubious motives.To name a few,S.African apartheid,animal 'rights'(an anti-Semitism front),3rd world poverty and environmental issues. All these issues have been pressed to the point where they become politically correct and the true believers effectively become controlled. The big problem is that once people become susceptible to control via political correctness about real issues,they can be controlled by making pseudo-issues politically correct,too.That's how anti-Israel attitude has taken hold in Britain.It's slyly tacked on to real issues and has become politically correct . Political correctness is a real menace.It saves people from the bother of looking at issues for themselves,thinking for themselves and forming their own considered opinions.They're controlled and don't even realize it. THREE CHEERS FOR ISRAEL!!!

Dr Frahadian you are simplistic and disingenuous to compares Iranians hypocrites you describe to educated Israelis trying to make ends meet . Israel is sadly a society of haves and have nots. Dr F , you are blinded by your good fortune so fail to see those who have not. I am alright Jack will not create a just society here

the resolution of this crisis is not so difficult;make a train like "RER" in France with a train every 5 minutes from Tel Aviv to the cities where the housing is less expensive , make good connections between the little towns and the stations of train,and make this transportation less expensive...and that's it!!!

The similarity between the protests in Iran and the protests in Israel is frightening. Excellent op-ed thankyou.

support Israel. That is why the MS churches like Anglican,Presbyterian, Methodist ect are losing members to the community evangelical churches that do support Israel. We read our old Testament scriptures the same as you! They worry about social justice, we are concerned with responsibility, Yeshua, and Israel.

We are living in a post zionistic globalized era where many smart non idealistic educated people will simply leave Israel if it does not get better.

There are people who are have-nots and need help. There are working poor who need help (why should gan take all of a working mother's salary?). There are, as this writer so brilliantly puts it, whiny spoiled middle classniks who complain (as one did on France24 television) that at the end of the month, they only have 10% of their salaries on which to go out and have a good time!!!???These whiners and their 'social justice' leadership are a disgrace, and make a mockery out of this social justice movement--basically a group of yuppies who failed to notice the poor, the elderly, the disabled and working poor until THEIR own budgets felt a bite. Hypocrites!

If the economy is so good in Israel why is all the money generated in this country end up with the tycoons, these tycoons have more money they can ever spend and theirs and their families life time, at least a portion of it should go to our children for what should be “free education”. Why on the schools list of things to buy we have toilet paper or plane A4 paper or markers or books and notebooks or annual trip fees. Is that because our economy is in such good shape?