Strike one!

Israel is entering a new age. Amir Peretz's successor, Ophir Eini, has called a general strike! From what I can gather, the main complaint is that salaries and pensions haven't been paid to public workers, such as firemen and government clerks. Money is budgeted but somehow disappears before the "checks are written."

Of course the people seriously affected by the strike are not the guilty ones. The Government Ministers and Members of Knesset always get paid on time. It's your ordinary citizen trying to get a passport, renew a drivers license. It's your businessman exporting Israeli-made goods to strengthen our economy. They're the ones who will be "inconvenienced" when the country is "shut down."

Those who came to the "fun country" Tsippi Livne has been promoting will find the airport closed, so they can't land and can't leave.

Peretz, as head of the Labor Party and senior government minister, was supposed to solve all of these problems. Now he's "management," and nothing has changed. Nothing has changed at all. That was also the platform of the Retirees Party, which got most of its votes from Israel's anti-establishment yuppies, who really don't care.

I have no idea how long this strike will last. It's just another sign of how badly the country is run. And about politicians like Peretz, it also shows that it's easier to get headlines calling a strike than fixing the country.

We need a total overhaul in the way Israel is run and the people running it. Let them all go far away. I have a feeling that that's what they really want, since making Israel a strong proud Jewish country isn't on their agenda!