May 16, 2010 on Al-Jazeera English
Several hundred thousand ultra-orthodox Jews do not have to work as they get money from the state to study the Torah, the holy book of Judaism.
But now, experts warn it is costing too much and Israeli taxpayers will not be able to carry the burden much longer.
This is well known in Israel, but the majority of the population doesn't understand the long term vision needed in order to change the situation, and won't vote for those who promote it.
ReplyDeleteDoes this mean Israel will hit the wall like Greece? Perhaps even need to be "bailed out" by another country? Dare I say it... the United States? That wouldn't really fly with American taxpayers one damn bit.
ReplyDeleteNot sure about that. Don't forget the religious who needs Israel to exist so that the end of days prophecy can happen.
ReplyDeleteIsrael is a small country and it can and will be bailed by USA easily (unless things in USA are bad during those years) considering their relation so far.
ReplyDeleteYeah, but there is a difference between the support of Zionism and setting aside taxpayer dollars to financially support a group of religious fundamentalists that do nothing but study their scripture, eat, and have lots of children (which require food, clothing, and schooling).
ReplyDeleteWere Israel to hit the wall and need a bailout, they would have to shut down their welfare program (like the Governator recently suggested doing for California), or significantly reduce it so that Americans won't feel cheated that any bailout monies are being used to provide for families that don't have to work, when here, many states require a work program to supplement welfare.
Then again, maybe Israel hitting the wall will be a sign of the end times for the religious, and cause them to petition against a bailout. Then, Arabs will see their chance to "strike deep into the belly of the Jew" during Israel's economic weakness. Possible?
Well, our national debt isn't getting any smaller.
ReplyDeleteI do have to enjoy a couple minutes of Schadenfreude though;
ReplyDeleteDuring the run-up to Obamacare, one of Germany’s large dailies
treated opposition to the new entitlement programme as a “Fear of Solidarity.” When
“solidarity” suddenly means passing out “get out of sovereign debtor jail free” cards
to anyone and everyone south of South Tyrol, apparently Americans are not the only
ones who protest. That being said, Germans have been tamed by nanny-state coddling.
They have enough bureaucracy to support a standing army of 5 million but have only
a handful of soldiers. Furthermore, since they are all unionized, their chances of engaging in combat again in Europe are quite
slim indeed. In all likelihood, the most aggressive move they would make would be a unilateral withdrawal from the
Eurozone and maybe giving Belgium a wedgie.