Israel’s Challenges – 2016: Recommendations for National Priorities

What are Israel’s elected leaders really dealing with today? Economic leadership, the media, and a steady flow of gossip? With Sarah Netanyahu, Bar Rafaeli, and the salary benefits of the nation’s elected? To them, the how and why of the closure of a restaurant owned by a renowned restaurateur and television personality is certainly no less important. And, at the same time they are debating Amos Shoken’s odd and hysterical “Peace Conference”, to spay or not to spay Tel Aviv’s cat population, letting the IDF be victorious, and “God willing”, everything will turn out exactly we wanted, just as it has for the last 3,200 years. But most important is to deal with Oren Hazan, a bizarre and revolting phenomenon, that defines more than anything who our elected officials, the leaders who are supposed to provide a solution for what I will present in the coming pages, really are.

In spite of these grave issues, and while the house is still in flames, nobody mentions the fact that Israel is not a western country, and this is because it lies in the Middle East. This is not a hypothetical statement, as a host of decisions that need to be made are derived from it, such as political initiative and right and wrong. However, the nation’s leaders (the Bibis, the Buzys, the Lapids, the Bennets, and the Ivets) think we are still a western country, but look at what they are dealing with.