September 4, 2011- Largest Demonstration in Israel History, Israel Refuses to Apologize to Turkey

A Daily Analysis

The Israeli news is dominated by two very different stories. However, ultimately these stories are related. The larger of the stories is about the protest marches that culminated last night in almost half a million people taking a stand. Last night's event was the largest protest march in Israels history.

Where the demonstrations go from here, is of course, a big question since it is clear that the numbers reached this past Saturday night are as large as they could go. The demonstrators have decided to wait now for the report of the Trachtenburg commission at the end of the month, to either help get the government to approve the report and implement it, or to protest the report if it does not go far enough in changing the national priorities. It is hard to fully encapsulate the demands of the protestors, but one way to describe them is an outpouring of Israels "silent majority". The "silent majority"represents the segment of the adult population that makes up the workforce (one of the lowest in the Western World) who are saying enough! The country is doing well. However, most people are not. The burden of taxation falls too heavily on the middle class; the same middle class who do reserve duty. Those who are not high tech entrepreneurs also want a brighter future. They want hope that things will become better.

Which brings me to the second topic, that of Turkey and the recently released UN Report that was well balanced and by and large favorable to Israel. It would have been the perfect time to pocket the report, accept its criticism that the use of actual lethal force, while justified, was excessive. Then apologize to the Turks, who have been important allies and who are playing a larger and larger role on the world scene. Unfortunately, the Israeli government decided that national pride was more important than national interest. Instead they continued to state that it will not apologize and did not accept the compromise worked out by the US government. I can only say that I am dumbfounded by the short sightedness of the current Israeli government.

How are the two items connected? People want to believe that they have a government that is acting in their best interest. While the demonstrators have done an excellent job of trying to keep the demonstrations above politics, they ultimately cannot be. For if Israelis are to have hope for the future it needs a smart government, one that acts in the best interest of the country, and not out of ideology, or to make one sector happy. This is not to mean that Israelis need to have peace in order to be satisfied, since actually achieving peace may not be possible, as it requires two parties to achieve peace. The Israeli People need to know that their government is doing everything to acheive peace, and if they can not accomplish that, they must ensure that Israels position in the world is as best as is possible--and not to continually weaken Israel's position, which this government seems to insist on doing regularly. If the people do not feel the government have their interests truly at heart then the protests will continue