The National Insurance Institute of Israel's report on poverty published Tuesday has taught us two important things: First, the number of impoverished children and senior citizens is growing, and second, the state is trying to hide this from us.
It's hard to determine what's worse – a civil society that knowingly alienates its weak or a blind community deceived by government announcements.
We can say with absolute confidence that neither option is a source of pride.
The National Insurance Institute and the minister of labor, social affairs and social services – Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu – were caught red-handed trying to fog the media's alertness.
They are counting on the public's blindness.
Although it is the duty of the National Insurance Institute by law to care for the weak, disabled, unemployed, elderly and children; the numbers are critical, and that is why the people in charge of fighting poverty in Israel want to confuse us with well-crafted announcements.
Once a year, during the cold and rainy December days, the state presents us with the fruits of its work.
The National Insurance Service, a mighty mechanism with thousands of employees whose sole purpose is to help the weak, is forced to present us with gloomy results year in and year out.
All of this happens under the auspices of the different Israeli governments over the years that have never been able to stop this growing pandemic, especially in the Arab and ultra-Orthodox communities.
Maybe this time around, thanks to the upcoming elections and the indictment that hovers over the head of former Welfare and Social Services Minister Haim Katz, who was forced to vacate his seat in favor of the prime minister, this year's poverty report received a personal treatment from the skilled team in the Prime Minister's Office for Photoshop affairs.
Those same people who doctored a photo of a sparse crowd at one of Netanyahu's support rallies and posted it on Twitter as authentic documentation will not shy away from steering the public opinion and marketing these sad figures as another dazzling success by a brilliant statesman.
Real data on the dwindling middle-class, the hundreds of thousands of children that are subjected to an unequal starting point and the hundreds of thousands of elderly people subjected to a humiliating end were nicely wrapped and marketed like a lovely Christmas gift.
He who tried to hide the annual press conference presenting this indictment of the Israeli welfare system won't be quick to tell us how he had allowed income support to drop from 70% of the value of the poverty line in 2000 to just 40% in 2017.
This same brilliant economist won't tell you that, despite the severity of poverty and despite its increasing scope from year to year, he didn’t bother to raise the government's social expenditure, which is one of the lowest among the OECD countries.
Netanyahu, who already knows the drill from other state departments, has his own way of seeing things.
Where you see poor children and senior citizens, he sees growth. Where you see poverty, he sees an opportunity for public relations.
The Ministry of Labor, Social Affairs and Social Services is just another stop on the road to the polling stations.