Living in Muslim Countries or Muslim-Administrated Places, No "Picnic"

I've been working in Yafiz, Rami Levy Co., Sha'ar Binyamin with Arabs for almost four years. My fellow staff and the customers are Jewish Israeli and Arab. Some of the Arabs  have Israeli papers, and some don't. We all get the same low salary for the same sort of work. And the customers pay the same low prices for the clothes and food sold by the Rami Levy conglomerate. This is not the "Israel' one sees in the international media or big hot-aired conferences.

You'd be surprised at how many of us, Jews and Arabs, have academic degrees, advanced training and certification, though we're working at the lowest salary level legal in Israel. Yes, I'm among them.

You'd expect the professional, academically trained Arabs to be working at good jobs in Arab cities or the P.A. or Gaza or wealthy Arab countries, rather than doing their best to hold to their low paying jobs in Sha'ar Binyamin.

In talking to some of our customers, I've discovered that salaries in the Arab cities here in Judea and Samaria are much, much lower than Israeli Minimum Wage. One man from an Arab city, who sometimes buys our clothes when we have "end of season clearance sales" to resell at his clothing store, wanted to know what our workers get paid. He told me how much he pays, and it's a tiny fraction of the Israeli Minimum Wage salaries here.

An Arab woman who enjoyed speaking to me in English, because as she explained, she's "...an English Teacher and needs the practice," Rather naively, she told me that I could make great money if I would teach in a college in Jenin or Nablus. Needless to say, she ignored the fact that I wouldn't make it home alive, but when she told me what the "great salary" would be, I was shocked. It's pretty much the same as full-time Israeli Minimum Wage.

There's a proven fact that many people insist on ignoring. Prior to the beginning of Zionism well over a hundred years ago, this area was pretty empty. Today's cities were barely towns. Zionism brought the area to life, and that life, the economic opportunities, top medical care, modern infrastructure etc, not only attracted Jews, but it also attracted Arabs. A high percentage of the Arabs who live here today are descended from those to moved here after the advent of Zionism.

And another thing that the world prefers to ignore, the P.A. and Gazan Arab administrations are among the worst in the world. Gaza is a mess, not because of Israeli attacks but because of the Hamas administration. The local Gazans aren't happy.

Now, as frustration mounts, many Gazans privately admit that the problem is not just the damage from the Israeli bombardment, but also the damage created by Hamas, the Islamic group that rules this coastal enclave......Despite the rosy public opinion polls, Hamas seems to be widely loathed in this coastal Mediterranean wasteland. Getting a quote, of course, is nearly impossible. (The Week)

Just some food for thought...

Israeli Curriculum for Arabs in Jerusalem, A Pragmatic move?

Last night as I was observing Arab families shopping in Yafiz, Sha'ar Binyamin, I couldn't help but notice how loving many of the fathers were towards their kids.  Suddenly I thought to myself:

"Would these fathers want their children killing themselves as a tool to murder Jews?"

Then I wondered if maybe I was just projecting my own love and value of life over ideology and hate.  Do the Arabs who promote terrorism and pass the evil onto their children shop in the Jewish-Israeli shopping center, Sha'ar Binyamin?  Do I meet, work with, serve a typical cross-section of Arabs or are these the less ideological, more pragmatic ones?

From body language and tones of voice, I can easily see many of the Arab parents admonishing their children to behave properly in the stores.  Many of the Arabs who shop in the Sha'ar Binyamin stores are forbidden to enter "Israel proper," sic, most of the State of Israel and nearby shopping/industrial areas like Mishor Adumim.  They need the right certification for that.

In the more than two and a half years since I began working in Yafiz, Sha'ar Binyamin there seems to be a slight rise in the percentage of Arabs who speak Hebrew with me.  Prior to that I used mainly English and pantomime to help them select clothing to buy.  Having a good grasp of Hebrew is a key tool for getting good jobs and a good education for the Arabs here.  The Arabs lucky enough to be employed at even the Israeli Minimum Wage jobs in Rami Levy Discount Supermarket make more money than a qualified teacher in cities such as Jenin and Shechem.  I've had discussions with Arab English teachers who told me how little a teacher makes there.

So I'm not at all surprised to read that five Arab schools in Jerusalem are switching to the Israeli school curriculum.

JERUSALEM (Ma'an) -- The director of education in Jerusalem has urged families with schoolchildren in Jerusalem to be aware that at least five Palestinian schools are switching to Israeli education materials.
Sameer Jibril said the Ebin Rushd and Abdulla bin Hussain schools were using Israeli education materials in the seventh and eighth grades. The Sour Baher school is using them for fourth, fifth and sixth grades, and the Ibin Khaldoun school uses it for seventh graders.

There are Arabs who are ambitious for their children and want the best possible education for them. By following the Israeli curriculum, it'll be easier for the students in these schools can more easily get into universities and get better jobs. 

Another reason the schools are switching to the Israeli Curriculum is that they will have a larger budget and higher salaries if they become part of the Israeli system.

The Israeli municipality in Jerusalem offered to increase salaries for teachers and principals who agree to implement the plans in their schools, the official said. The proposal would add about 2,000 shekels (about $550) per student enrolled in schools using Israeli curricula.

As we all know, money speaks; money speaks very loudly.

Statistics show that Arab family size is shrinking.  Many Arab families do still indoctrinate their children to do everything to oppose the State of Israel and are dangers to us, but my gut feeling is that more and more are pragmatically accepting Israel and don't want Arab rule.  They are in touch with their family and friends in Arab countries and know how difficult life is there.  That's not the life they want.  I also see over and over that local Arabs take visiting friends and family members to Sha'ar Binyamin to go shopping.  It's one of the major "must-see" sights and experiences when visiting.  The Arabs come on "shopping tours,"  oohing and ahhing over what we have to sell.  I've been told more than once that our simple family clothing store reminds them of America.

I see a great irony in the fact that despite Israel's foolish (and dangerous) decision in 1967 to allow the Arab schools in Jerusalem to continue with Jordanian curriculum, it's due to the Arabs' needs that almost a half a century after the Six Days War they are adopting Israeli educational requirements. G-d willing it's a step in the slow but sure path to a true peace.

Netanyahu, Lapid Punish Families With Children and Bennett is Silent

Only the wealthy won't feel Binyamin Netanyahu and Yair Lapid's latest budget cut, which reduces "child allowances" to a pitiful joke. 

Where just a few years ago families received as much as NIS 400 per child, the payments for children will fall to NIS 140 (less than $40) per child per month... Arutz 7

Contrary to Lapid's rantings, it's not the lazy unemployed sector that will feel it the most.  Those families with almost no income get various welfare subsidies; it's the working poor, who even with the previous child allowances barely finished the month. 

I have no idea how Lapid has come up with his so-called facts:

“We will help needy families and set aside hundreds of millions [of shekels] to make sure no children go hungry, but [the cuts] are a historic move from a culture of allotments to a culture of work.”
Beginning on August 20, parents will receive only 140 shekels per month for each child born after June 1, 2003.
According to Lapid, National Insurance Institute (NII) child allotments perpetuated poverty instead of stopping it.
“There is only one thing that allows families to get out of the cycle of poverty – work. The poverty rate in families with two working parents is under 5 percent.” Indy News of Israel

Apparently, Yair Lapid is just as anti-religious and anti-chareidi as his father was.  He just packages himself differently. 

For Haredi families, this severe cut in income comes coupled with a severe curtailing of funding for yeshivas and kolelim—by 30 percent this coming year, and by 60 percent the following year. Jewish Press

Lapid's timing is extra cruel considering the season.  Summer is extremely, unbearably expensive for families with children, no matter what their income.  Children on vacation from school need to be minded, cared for which is expensive.  Summer camp, vacations, babysitters, bathing suits, crafts etc. are difficult for many parents to pay for.  You see many parents taking their children to work, because there's no alternative especially when they are working at low wages.  Sometimes it costs more to go to work than to stay home.  By reducing child allowances it can become completely financially impossible for both parents to work.

Even before these new child allowance cuts, parents were finding it difficult to pay for school supplies, books and the expenses for the upcoming Jewish Holidays.

Israel doesn't have much of a parliamentary opposition, but I hope this latest government move galvanizes them to action.

“It injures where it’s supposed to heal. Once again, [Finance Minister Yair] Lapid is taking advantage of and encouraging a mistaken and inciting idea that haredim and Arabs are the only ones who are harmed by budget cuts. First of all, a child is a child is a child.”
According to Yacimovich, the average family will lose NIS 2,000 per year because of the allotment cuts.
The Labor issue took with a statistic Lapid cited – that only five percent of families where both parents work are poor – and said that 65 percent of poor families are working families.
She added that there are 870,000 poor children in Israel, more than any other Western country.
“This is an economic and national mistake, evil for its own sake, and a total detachment from people’s regular lives,” Yacimovich wrote.  Jerusalem Post

But my big question concerns to silence from Lapid's buddy, Naftali Bennett. A large portion of Bennett's NRP-aka Bayit Yehudi voters will be losing thousands of shekels a year in this government decision.  Ignored by Lapid, Netanyahu and Bennett, who is also in the government coalition, is the fact that many, many families that will be losing thousands of shekels a year are from the dati Le'umi, national religious portion of the population.  They voted on the whole for NRP and Likud.  There's a good chance they won't be able to afford to make that mistake again.

Who in Israel Really Needs "Open Skies?"

My husband is one of those whose trip abroad this week may not happen.  Israel's new Finance Minister Yair Lapid campaigned to help those he calls "middle class," those making, like his Riki Cohen family, almost five times minimum wage and just over double average wage for a couple. 

Riki Cohen, a widow from Hadera, earns NIS 4,500 ($1,234) a month. She can only dream of earning NIS 20,000 ($5,485) a month, like the fictitious family of 'Mrs. Riki Cohen,' mentioned by Finance Minister Yair Lapid in his controversial Facebook post.
In his post, Lapid also said the 'Cohen family' travels abroad once every two years. "Is he serious? I've never been abroad," the real Riki Cohen told Ynet Tuesday.

Yair Lapid's concept of a "middle-class salary" is upper class, according to the real financial statistics here in Israel, especially considering that Riki Cohen's family can afford to travel abroad every two years.  Lapid doesn't consider that frequent enough and in one of this new government's first big moves is to open Israeli skies to the very competitive airfares.

In response, the Israeli airlines, including El Al are striking.  My husband, not being among the privileged, sophisticated frequent travelers didn't realize that he should have cancelled his El Al ticket and quickly bought one from a different airline. Reports are that the airport will start shutting down tomorrow.  This is not good for Israel.

Considering that another of Lapid's, and no doubt we should remember that Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu must certainly approve these moves,  budget changes is cutting child allowances which seriously affects the lower and true middle class families.

Those spending cuts include NIS 4b.-5b. from the civil service, NIS 3b.-4b. from defense, with an equal amount from child allotments and NIS 2b.-4b. from infrastructure spending.
Yet a representative for Lapid would disclose only that the budgetary framework includes new taxes on affluent goods such as luxury apartments and cars.

So, I guess we can conclude from those budget changes that Lapid puts children in the same unnecessary or optional category as luxury cars.  Does he expect Israelis to somehow down-size their families by "deleting" some of their children?

It seems pretty obvious that this is a Marie Antoinette  government whose theme is:

"Let them eat cake."