Israel's Challenges

8. Cracks in national resilience

My litmus test is this: the amount of public corruption, the emigration of those

who are able, the legislative system (Oren Hazan, for example), the executive

branch (when will you finally handle the Hilltop Youths

?) and the judicial

system (how long will the judgments concerning prominent figures in our

society be delayed?) all point to advanced stages of collapse. The amount

of evasion of military service is worrying, as are the lines to receive foreign

passports.

9. Lack of governance

This transcends everything, but is mainly a catalyst for the demise of

democracy (e.g. verbal abuse and physical violence: in the street, in educational

institutions, against the courts. It is everywhere!). A recent example concerns

the natural gas that was finally discovered in Israel. The discovery of gas

creates the opportunity that we will finally be released from our dependence

on others. The gas is supposed to be clean, safe and “ours”. But this gas reaches

Israeli consumers by only one pipeline, and its entry into Israel is at one of the

worst places possible, and that too is an understatement. This is an existential

question in the full sense of the word. So why aren’t there additional places to

bring gas onto Israel’s beaches, mainly in the north?

It turns out that “no governance” is not just a bother, it is a strategic threat!

“No governance” is also “no sovereignty”. Israel is not sovereign in many parts

of the country: in the northern Negev, in the central Galilee, in the “Small

Triangle”

, in the neighborhoods of south Tel Aviv and in large and growing

Jewish segments that have not yet recognized the Zionist nation. These are the

same portions of the population who receive large amounts of our taxes every

month (usually on the 1st), and in return they are waiting for the messiah to

arrive.

8 A term commonly used to refer to extreme, nationalist, Jewish youths who establish

outposts on West Bank hilltops that have not been legally sanctioned.

9 A term describing the Arab villages between the coastal plain and the Carmel mountain

range.