As an Israeli living in France, and writing a book about the system in Israel, I decided to let you have a look briefly at the Israeli citizen hell.
There is a huge jail somewhere in the middle east where 7 million people are locked. It is called the state of Israel. The prisoners are not the Palestinians but the Israeli citizens themselves. The typical Israeli can handle wars, bombs, natural disasters, and everything as familiar as these. Unfortunately he has to handle something far worse, the system.
A system based on Turkish and English heritage mixed with distorted local concepts of democracy and human rights. a system that adore, support and promote political power and money. All the systems that were designed to serve the citizen and the country are actually serving politicians, banks, large corporations and 18 families that holds more then 80% of the money in the country.
The taxes in Israel are as high as the most advanced western countries however the services provided in return are only slightly better then in the third world. National insurance that originally designed to provide some kind of social security became a major tormentor and squeeze the people that desperately requires its help both mentally and financially. There is no wonder why the security in the national insurance offices in Jerusalem is tighter then in the Israeli embassy in Egypt. Any reform in the tax system somehow always benefit the top income earners, and if expanses cut down are required its always from what, we, the Israelis, call: "the living flesh" i.e. The poorest, the oldest and the sick, right after those always comes the education that deteriorated in the last 10 years and led the country from the top of the lists in the western world to the bottom without any visible change in the horizon.
A recent research showed that in the past 8 years the lowest level earners gained additional 5.7% to their income while top earners gained 45.7% in the same period under the same economical environment.
The fact that every Israeli gives his country 3 of his best years (2 for women ) does not change anything, he is indeed receiving several minor benefits afterward but they seems miserable when a student have to pay his fees to the university (despite the fact they are extremely low relatively ) or to rent an apartment, not to mention to buy one. as if its not enough the Israeli men are spending a month every year in th reserve forces for the following 20 years. Officially there are plenty of rules to support and defend them from being fired, missing exams, and so on, practically they have to fight to have these rights, and quite often to reach courts to practice their basic rights.
The army is a major issue in the Israeli citizen life and if by chance there is a war (like the last Lebanon war) business collapses and the government consider every compensation claim (direct damage or indirect) as fraud attempt (thats why they created the national insurance for).
Looking at Israel from the outside it is easy to point out many remarkable achievements, such as reviving a 2000 years old dead language, building successful industries, achieving international awards, plenty of patents written on Israelis names and many more. But all those and more are actually individual achievements that had been through hell to get there, without any support from the system and even occasional (sometimes constant ) interference from a system that later on had the nerves to take part of the credit.
the Israelis are very competitive and often express their envy, however they are very proud and praises a success stories, especially as they are aware of the efforts needed for anyone to bypass all the hurdles set by the system.
Israel is by all meaning a western country, highly technological, democratic, with a top intellectual layer. Free speech is regarded as holy more then in anywhere else in the world, even though somewhat exaggerated (where else in the world you can find the bitter state enemies` counselor sitting in the local parliament. I am referring to Dr. Ahmad Tibi former counselor to Yassear Arafat-a member of the Israeli Knesset). Free speech is great as long as somebody cares. Israeli politicians doesn't really care, especially when election year is far enough, only a progressive police investigation just few minutes before a criminal law suits is produced in court, they may resign, in most cases they will stick to their chairs, until they get the boot. These lines are written two days after "Winograd" committee released its report about the 2nd Lebanon war that actually said that the state of Israel functioned without any leadership. needless to say that the so called prime-minister refuses to resign, despite the poles showing that about 70% of the Israelis want him too. It is an extreme consensus, not really typical to the politically divided Israeli citizens.
Every Israeli has been through at least one of the grinding governmental systems and due to the frustrating bureaucracy stayed there for years. Compensation from national insurance – 2 years (if you are lucky not to have a strike in the middle, which is highly impossible ). Law suit – minimum 4 years – if you are suing but damn fast if the system sued you, and so on. There are even those that does not even required to sue you or to prove anything (such as income tax and…national insurance) they can send their hounds anytime without having to explain anything to anyone and with no-one to supervise them.
the state of Israel was set up to provide a home to the Jewish diaspora where they can be feel secure. one can argue about the security however one cannot argue that immediate threat and hostility is not external but internal, and while the Israelis can fight external threats they are completely helpless from the enemy within.