Amiram’s Observations

I woke up one morning, I looked around, and I realized, the country I live in is experiencing anarchy.  Now, that’s one big accusation to make against your homeland.  It’s something, one would say, that should be done very carefully, very seriously, and has to be backed with hard evidence.  I agree.  I thought about it long and hard, and I realized that I was witnessing certain kinds of behaviors that I am not accustomed to see, and that these behaviors may suggest signs of anarchy.

Humans usually live within a social structure that represents families, communities, towns, cities, and other collections of people.  In a family or larger communities, behaviors usually represent care that is beyond the care for an individual on his or her own.  Complete strangers are still courteous, provide help, and manifest almost altruistic behaviors.  It is when social structure breaks down, that one can observe behaviors that show concern for the individual only, or to his or her immediate family and circle of friends.  My observation is that Israel is experiencing these changes in behaviors.

I always thought that a certain level of trust must exist between complete strangers, otherwise life as we know it cannot be sustained.  For example, obeying traffic lights is almost a necessity in order for life to continue.  A driver must have the confidence to cross an intersection when the traffic light is green, trusting (blindly) that his or her fellow drivers will stop at the red light presented on the other side of the intersection.  If the drivers didn’t have this confidence or trust, they will simply stop at the intersection regardless of the color of the light.  Same with stop signs.  Pedestrians must trust drivers to obey the traffic lights.  The hidden assumptions by pedestrians is that drivers will never start driving for as long as the traffic light is red.  (I must add here that pedestrians are still required to make sure the road is safe to cross even when the lights are still red for the incoming traffic).  People inherently accept standing in line.  When we stop accepting lines, the strong will make it, the weak, old and very young will be stepped on and left for dead.

Up front let me state that I wish that the outcome of this exercise would have been that I was wrong.  That it is only an observation based on little evidence, one personal experience, the media.  I wish that my conclusion would be that I am proud and happy to carry the Israeli passport, pay the taxes, serve in the military.  I wish that the outcome would suggest that against all odds, Jews were able to create in the middle east, something that nobody was able to create elsewhere.  A state, respectful of its citizens, serving them day and night, with no discrimination, corruption.  With full equality and representation.  I really wish to be a proud Israeli.

Almost every Saturday, my family and I wake up early to the high pitched sound of a buckeye engine.  A buckeye is a large parachute, connected to a fan driven by a gasoline based engine.  Flying a buckeye is a respected recreational activity.  I respect recreational activity as mush as the next guy.  What I don’t respect is people flying over residential areas, at low altitude, endangering the communities and of course waking them up on their day off.  Why is this associated with anarchy?  Because it shows that the pilot is thinking of one thing only: his own R&R (relaxation and recreation).  What he completely ignores is the safety and well being of the people living below his flight path.  Individuals do that occasionally, they ignore the laws.  But the police or other authorities (like the Civil Aviation Administration) sometimes show up and make them take responsibility for ignoring the law.  Obviously, flying a buckeye is an activity which is difficult to hide.  But when the police and the CAA are absent, and there’s no fear of the law – this is where anarchy lurks.  Anarchy.

Unfortunately for me, I spend a lot of time on the road.  The way people drive in Israel suggests two things: one that they don’t respect anything except their own time (rushing somewhere is a good enough reason to speed and ignore traffic rules and instructions), and second, that they don’t give a rat’s ass about the police.  Speeding, car accidents, hit and runs, injured and dead, are a daily issue here.  I assume it’s everywhere, but here it’s obvious disrespect.  Anarchy.

This one has been true for years.  If one’s car has been stolen, or one’s house burglarized, chances are that the possessions will never be recovered.  The police has only one job in this equation: to issue a police report so one can claim the loss from the insurance company.  Anarchy.

On occasion, a driver would need to make a bio break.  Face it, sometimes one has to go.  In the past, drivers would park the car on the shoulder, then walk away behind a tree or something to relieve themselves.  I started to notice that drivers pull over and go right there and then, next to their cars.  Shame disappeared.  Anarchy.

Criminals shoot each other on the street causing “collateral damage” to innocent bystanders.  Anarchy.

ATVs (All Terrain Vehicles) driving in a group in the middle of the highway, speeding in residential areas, with no respect to other drivers, pedestrians or traffic laws and rules, endangering themselves and the other users of the road.  Anarchy.

I must add that the government also makes sure that Israelis feel that they have been deserted.  The government is not keeping the very basic contract between a citizen and the authorities.  Education, clean air, water, security and safety, equality before the law.  Anarchy.

Let me give an example, which involves the revealing of some very confidential information.  Please keep it to yourself.  Israel is located in the Middle East.  Top secret number one.  Israel, small as it is, has shores in two oceans (the Mediterranean on the west, and the Red Sea on the south).  This secret involves national security, so please don’t tell.  Large parts of Israel are desert.  I know I can get in trouble for revealing this one.  Lastly, Israel has experienced a drought in the last five or six years.  Israel has been around for over sixty years, and so has the technology of water desalination.  You would think that in 2009, the government in Israel would have had a dozen desalination plants.  You would think that a state, claiming to belong to the First World, would have some technological advances like say its neighbors: Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Qatar all are big in water desalination.  Well, it has only two (I think).  Their capacity is much larger than what the government lets them provide.  Why?  Because the Israeli government has come to the decision that it is more effective to tax water, while risking the drying of the only fresh water lake in Israel – the Sea of Galilee.  Anarchy.

The education system is ridiculous, citizens of Israel are required to either teach their own children or pay someone else to do it for them.  Israel, by the way, is proud of its free, open for all, education system.  However, education in the periphery is not even close to education in the big city.  Education for minorities is almost non existent.  Accomplishments of Israeli students are getting lower and lower.  Violence in the schools is rising.  Soon enough we’ll have a literacy problem.  Children have no education, no respect.  All they have is brand names, TV games and third rate celebrities.  Anarchy.

Ultra religious people are trashing the city of Jerusalem on a daily basis, throwing stones at the Mayor, demanding that a lady of their own, indicted for child abuse (denying food from a three years old child, inserting unidentified substances into his feeding tube) is released immediately.  Demonstrating violently every Saturday because a parking lot was opened in the Old City of Jerusalem.  No arrests (or very little) are made.  Anarchy.

New soldiers, reporting to some battalion, were greeted with an acceptance ritual which included physical and mental abuse.  Commanders and officers were sentenced to jail terms.  The parents of the sentenced soldiers complained that their children were unfairly charged, as the rituals were traditional.  Anarchy.

Recently, a Scout Leader course took place up north.  As it turns out, the “children” took part in some “mischief”.  This “mischief” included rape, forced sodomy, smearing feces on one another, and other interesting activities.  Management of the Scouts tried at first to deny the whole thing.  Anarchy.

It gets better actually.  Settlers, residents of the West Bank, challenge the police and the armed forces on a daily basis.  True to their names, they settle.  Everywhere.  A few families, a couple of motor homes, a tent for religious ceremonies, and a settlement is placed overnight.  Literally, overnight.  Then it takes months of legal litigation, evacuation attempts, more evacuation attempts.  Success, and then more attempts.  Civil resistance is somewhat acceptable to me.  But not when the consensus is elsewhere.  What’s interesting is that the police and the armed forces suffer the abuse, but very little arrests and indictments come out of this challenge.  Palestinian also suffer from these activities.  Their fields become inaccessible, the tress uprooted.  They, unlike the settlers, have to fend for themselves.  Anarchy.

The political system is broken, the administration at least feels as if it is corrupted to the bone.  Indictments against a former Prime Minister, quite a few former ministers, current ministers and many other government officials are ongoing.  The feeling is that the country is slipping away into the claws of disorder, unlawfulness, anarchy, and corruption.  The amazing thing is that most Israelis will tell you that security, terrorism, Arabs (inside and outside Israel), are the real problem.  I state clearly: if Israel continues on this path, a comprehensive peace in the Middle East will be a walk in the park.  Israel will disappear and the Palestinian will inherit the land.  If only they were patient enough to let it happen.