Wow she looks well fed.

to afford the life of riley it provides for the settlers with their subsidised housing, cheap cars and swimming pools the government has to neglect normal decent Israelis and leave 1 in 5 in poverty, where they cannot afford to buy food. Netanyahu is ruling Israel for the benefit of 500,000 people and wilfully neglecting 5.5 million Israelis for personal gain

It really bugs me that these reports focus on people who are expected to be below the poverty line or in financial distress. I am married with a 10 month old son. My wife and I both earn above average salaries. Our expenses in a month are astronomical. In a birthday/wedding month, it can easily exceed 15000 shekels. Rent, utilities, child care and maintenance, car payments and upkeep (insurance, gas). It just never ends. I am not complaining about our situation as we live well (despite not being able to save much). What bothers me is that these articles/studies do not focus on young, educated people with well paying jobs. When we cannot afford to live an average life, despite both earning above average salaries, that is a problem. There is a brain drain in this country because young adults cannot see the point of working like dogs and barely making ends meet when friends in other countries are living much more comfortably. There needs to be a serious plan of action put into place soon or we will be facing an economic collapse.

My rent in central Tel Aviv has gone up 35% in five years, my income has needless to say not gone up by the same astronomical rate. So I have to cut back on everything else, and I mean everything else. So does everybody else of course in central TA, which has knock-on effects on the economy, people spend less on food, restaurants, clothes etc, and these retailers lose out. I am single, nobody else to support. I don't know how other people come out, oh wait they don't and they get into debt. There are more beggars everywhere. We are suffering ever more every year and yes this is a silent bomb that threatens us all. Our political leadership both Left and Right have failed us utterly in this respect.

meat and fruits and vegetables. She looks like she has metabolic syndrome, a precursor to diabetes and other diseases. She has to eat what she can afford which is fattening not slimming. As a child, I used to crave sweets because I was deficient in protein in my diet. There were too many children to feed them much meat and one piece of chicken doesn't satisfy the body's need for protein so it manifests itself in craving sweets.

Many people especially the criminally insane ultra orthodox deny themselves the education necessary to achieve a degree of self sufficiency. That is their fault. There are those who because of mental or physical circumstances, who may not be able to achieve their full potential. That is unfortunate. However for the majority the choice is theirs and theirs alone. Israel does not deny anyone the chance for self improvement. You have some of the finest schools in the world. Israel by all standards is doing very well. The choice is yours. You can wallow in self pity and moan yourselves to oblivion or you can take the bull by the horns and do something about it. Stop the whining and moaning. As long as you have your witts about you and you are in decent health, nothing should stop you from bettering yourself. Stop the charade. Its getting old and tiresome.

most wealthy in Israel are also to blame. They take too much for themselves to make them billionaires and that means their workers don't get what they should to live a middle class existence instead of in poverty. It isn't just the political leadership that has failed the workers. But if the government asks the rich to pay more to their workers, they balk and move their businesses to a tax haven and that costs the people who work for them their jobs. The Holy Scriptures shows it takes a 50% to charity and Temple range donation for the wealthy for the Lord to consider them for inclusion in His Kingdom. So most wealthy people go to hell while the poor have a better chance of going to heaven. In that respect it is better to be in want materially and to walk the narrow path of righteousness which is very difficult for the wealthy to do.

The gov. pays for more strangers to come in through Aliyah, gives more money for religious affairs, spends money to build houses for settlers of the West Bank, moves out full communities to build some military complex....

You are a disgrace to all mankind!

Firstly #2 Sarah it has nothing to do with settlers. I moved to Efrat because it was close to Jerusalem and where i could afford to Buy. MY salary is sad for past few years and food and other costs have increased by 25%. The Bigger issue is why has it all gotten more expensive where in Europe some prices have even fallen. Govenment need to wake up and stop monopolies charging too much from the common people. The one good thing in past 5 years was the mobile phone prices. Weneed to take some common items and break them down in percentage as who gets what. We can then see how we can reduce the cost of goods and services which will benefit most people

In Israel people have always worked longer hours and for much less money than their counterparts in the west I am also not sure at this stage there is a solution. We cannot demand private employers pay anything above minimum wage so if they want to pay people much less than they deserve its their propagative. You increase the minimum wage companies will lay people off and prices will be raised. If the supermarket owners now have to give their people more money they will make up their losses by raising prices which as a private business is their right. Israelis have been working for such little money for decades and so if now we started trying to change things how will it affect foreign investment? We live in a global economy where a big business can pack up and relocates in another country if its going to lower their costs. I am just not sure there is a solution anymore and we have waited to long not the fault of this government or any other just fact Israelis have always let themselves be exploited and I don't think that even the most extreme left can solve this problem.

There is no competition in Israel, thus the prices are sky-rocketing. Dairy products are forbiddingly expensive as Tnuva is almost a monopoly. The same goes for many other staples. Housing market is a jungle when sub-standard work is a going standard. Construction companies sell the apartments that are almost never delivered on time. When 1 liter of orange juice in Israel is more expensive than in Sweden - there are zillions of reason for a serious stock-taking. What happened in the Israel cell phone business making prices fall to a relatively reasonable level is an exception and this model has to be spread to all other sectors ASAP! The market has to be set free, cartels and monopolies have to abolished and not only on paper...

Did you even read the article? Some of these people work hard for a living. The lady in the picture is educated but couldn't get a job in her field due to her age. The cost of living here has skyrocketed, while wages haven't.

Tel Aviv is the 17th most expensive city in the world and most expensive in the Middle East. It is Israels version of New York or London and so never going to be affordable to the masses. There has also been a housing bubble for about 5 years now and shown no sign of ending soon and government doesn't control property prices the free market does. In Tel Aviv land comes at a premium so developers pass that cost onto buyers who pass it onto tenants through higher rents. Also the fact that there has in recent years been quite alot of richer European Jews making alliyah they can afford it and so want to live in luxury buildings which the average Israeli cannot afford to live in. Developers also buy up the old buildings which were affordable pull them down and put up a luxury one for the rich olin and foreigners wanting a holiday home or an investment. I am not in Tel Aviv but I Iive in an old building of about 4 stories and there is talk that the building is going to be sold for redevelopment if the owners cannot get permission to add floors to the existing building. On the same street about 2 years ago there is a similar building but that was sold, now the place is gutted and there is a big poster of what will be built on that site and thats luxury not affordability.

What about families of 4 people (parents + 2 children)? I have relatives who work 6 days a week and earn around 10-14000NIS before taxes for a family. And they HAVE to cut on electricity, cooling and heating. And they CAN'T afford eating meat every day. Or what about me - a young professional - every time I compare prices for rent or food here and abroad - I want to cry. While having salary way higher than average in country - I still can't afford a car or a loan for apartment - and it doesn't seem like I would be able to in the next 10 years.

puts me to shame.

The current right-wing goverment ignores the starving citizens of this country yet splashes unlimited funds building housing for the settlers and harideem.

The food companies have huge markups with monthly profits of something like 50 to 60% of revenue. That means they are making HUGE profits. Maybe time for them to pull in less profit!

We hear about the poverty and hardship among certain communities, religious and secular, but when we see the reports on this subject, those who cry poverty almost invariably have a cigarette in their mouths or hand and TV cameramen zoom in every time. Smoke of buy food? Its seems that Israelis have their priorities mixed up! A pack of cigarettes costs NIS25-30 and a kg of chicken breast is NIS30. So they have a choice: burn NIS30 and damage their health of feed their family for the same amount of money.

Despite US and Gemany's handouts.

The prestigious York based Rowntree Foundation finds that poverty in the UK is far worse than 20%. Maybe you should worry about something else?

And 80% have cable TV and 60% fly overseas every year for vacations. Where do they get these "poverty" numbers from?

For the last 10 years the taxes and fees grew-up everywhere. The reason we were told was instability in the Middle East. The problem is global. And there is no end for the bureaucrats to stop wasting. Start with them first. They have the rights to use resources but they don't have to report on their spending to the public. Their actions can't be judged by the tax payers. And when there is a bad decision made by them, bureaucrats don't get punishment.

Then, in order to qualify for state benefits, you must work- not study for a living. Study on your own time, work to put food on your table. The state cannot afford to subsidize Torah 'scholars' - as if Israel really has tens of thousands of them! Support the 100 that are true scholars and everyone else has to find a job- any job. Are you telling me a Hasid can't set bricks or lay pipe? Can't put down a tile floor or run an electric circuit? If not, train them!

Netanyahu - Stop buying and manufacturing war weapons and feed your people. Peace with your neighbors helps to feed 20% of Israelis.

I moved to Israel from Europe about 7 years ago. Taxes in Israel are still lower for my income class and I perceive the quality of life in Israel to be a bit higher than in most of Europe. Pollution and post-socialist crud is a problem though. We need to tackle that. Also Israel should allow more competition in domestic markets.

Mr.PM instead of drawing red lines to alert the world about war and its outcome - draw a red line to stop higher prices so people can live in dignity- do you at all care how people live I dont think so.

or health care, or recieve a decent wage, or a good education, or a livable pension? Go back to where you came from, immigrant, before you start criticizing someone else. Especially a country that you know nothing about..besides America.

Deport all the Africans, Asians and Latinos destroying our country, our economy and our way of life. Once these pests will be gone our money will stay in our country; we will have more jobs and our economy will get better. All the Africans destroying our country must go!