The truth about the Israeli education system

The scare story of the day on the front page of Ha'aretz: "Teacher salaries in Israel among the lowest in the world." The story compares Israel's performance on a number of indicators to the high income group of nations covered in a report by the OECD (Organization for Economic co-operation and Development). Toward the end of the story was the news that Israel does better than many countries on indicators of higher education. An item on the radio contrasted Israel's educational expenditures, teachers' salaries and class size to those of Norway.
 
These reports do say something about education in Israel, but no less about the media.
 
Nowhere does one see an effort to explain the findings, other than citing the country's shame for not doing more.

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'Don't make things worse'

For over 40 years, the principal field in which I have taught and written, and which most of my conversations have focused on, has been public policy.
 
I spent about a quarter of my career among American students and officials. Most of the rest was spent among Israelis, and in meetings with individuals high, low and middle in other places. Sooner or later we usually got around to discussing what governments were doing, and how they were doing it.
 
My classes and queries usually focused on the elements that influence policymakers and the benefits or costs to citizens: what is, what explains it, and what is likely to be. Sometimes, I wandered into the realm of what should be.

I am not anti-America, but...

Mahmoud Abbas has a new demand of the United States: to order the immediate removal of the security barrier being built between Palestinian areas of the West Bank and Israel. According to Abbas, the barrier is standing in the way of the peace process. On account of an end to the violence, he claims, it is unnecessary.
 
That is like a cancer patient telling his physician that he can stop chemotherapy because he is having a good day.
 
It is not possible at this time to predict whether Israel's security barrier will have a life that is shorter or longer than the Berlin Wall, the Great Wall of China, or the various barriers that the United States is building between itself and Mexico.

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Ghetto revolt

There is a ghetto revolt in Jerusalem.
 
It began several weeks ago in protest against the municipality opening a parking garage on the Sabbath that served visitors to the Old City. It escalated in protest against the arrest of a woman from one of the ultra-Orthodox communities on charges of abusing her three-year-old son.
 
The ghetto is always seething to some degree. Protests can escalate at any time on account of  opposition to a store selling non-kosher food; the discovery of bones at a construction site; the demand that a road be closed on the Sabbath; advertising posters showing immodest women; or a demonstration of gay pride.

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Israeli Arabs live better than US minorities

It is common to hear that Israel treats its Arab minority poorly, and treats the Arabs of the West Bank and Gaza worse. Jimmy Carter limited his description of "apartheid" to the West Bank and Gaza, but others have applied it to Israel. Jewish leftists from Israel and elsewhere are leading some of the tunes, and joining others as a chorus.
 
The reality is different.
 
The dirty word "apartheid" does not belong in this discussion. The barriers between Israelis and Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza reflect violence against Israeli civilians, and not racism. Within Israel, there are too many Arabs studying in Israeli universities and living alongside Jews to justify the term 'apartheid' other than as an anti-Semitic screed.

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US public opinion turning against Israel

Several friends have cautioned me that public opinion in America is turning against Israel, and public opinion in Europe is more intense in its opposition.
 
The reasons cited are the ugly pictures coming out of Gaza, as well as the perception that President Obama is upping the pressure against Israeli stubbornness with respect to concessions for the Palestinians.
 
If you actually read my letters, you should have noticed that I judged Obama's speech to be at least as harsh toward the Arabs as toward Israel. Nonetheless, public opinion polls show a strong tendency among Israelis to perceive animosity. Perhaps it is Jewish nerves, overly suspicious about an escalation of threat. It is incorrect to conclude that George W. Bush and Condoleezza Rice never criticized Israel. I recall them saying what Obama said about the need to stop settlement growth.

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Israel more successful than US in security matters

In the context of rising tensions between the Obama administration and the Netanyahu government about Jewish settlements in the West Bank, it is appropriate to look at some details. They may not convince Obama enthusiasts to question whether the president is on the right track. They will not overturn the view held by many that the settlements represent all that is short-sighted and wrong-headed about the Israeli regime. Facts are only one of the things considered by partisans. Nonetheless, they are worth something.
 
They indicate that Israel has been more successful than the United States in dealing with its security, at less cost to the people who consider themselves enemies of Israel.

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Israel's troubled legislative proposals

Israel is going through a season of proclamations and legislative proposals that remind me of American campaigns about prayer in schools, abortions, and gay marriage.
 
The equivalents here are a proposals to outlaw the mourning of Israel's existence (Nakba) by the country's Arab population, jail sentences for those who deny the Jewish character of the country, and rabbinical demands that soldiers refuse orders to remove settlements.
 
What links these Israeli and American issues is their capacity to inflame marginal issues with religious fanaticism.

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The game continues

The United States is the most powerful nation in the world. It may be the most powerful in the history of the world, but analyses of power relative to others at their times might find ancient Greece and Rome, and not so ancient Nazi Germany in comparable or stronger positions. Germany's power did not last long, but it was awesome while it was all over Europe, close to Moscow and Cairo.
 
Those who doubt that the United States can act unilaterally, or nearly so, should take a look at what it has done to Iraq, and what its unguided missiles have done to civilians in Afghanistan. Americans responsible for those actions are not concerned to travel outside their country, or being seized by border officials acting under the decisions of judges from Spain, the United Kingdom, or the Hague.

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Containing the rogues

The Economist's description of Gaza three months after Israel's invasion makes for difficult reading. The slogans of "collective punishment" and the "world's largest prison" seem accurate. 

Numerous families are living rough due to their homes being destroyed. Diets are limited due to continued blockades of all but essential foods and medicines. The Israeli press reported recently that pumpkins were not allowed in because they were not on the list of essential foods.