A Missed Opportunity for Unity
A Strike Where (Nearly) Everyone Works
Yesterday, the head of Israel’s Histadrut Trade Union called for a general strike in support of the hostage families and against the government’s unwillingness to come to an agreement with Hamas for the hostages release “at any cost”. Since the motivation is not economic for the workers the strike itself seems to be illegal. In days gone by, the cliché was that “one phone call from the head of the Histadrut and the whole country is shut down”. Those were the good old days for organized labor. They are no more. His call was a strike against the Union and against national unity – all at once.
After the announcement city after city and regional council after regional council, stretching from north to south from east to west announced they would not participate and that city services (including the essential nursery and kindergartens) would continue. The Israel Railway also announced service as usual. The airport – the main area where real damage could be done announced a two hour stoppage of departures from 8-10am and arrivals as scheduled.
The councils in the war zones such as Merom Hagalil, Golan Regional Council the cities of Ma’alot, Nahariya, the Krayot (near Haifa) in the north and Sderot, Netivot, Ashdod and Ashkelon in the south condemned the strike as hurting those who have been hurt most by the war. They all remain open for business. Jerusalem also announced they were staying open.
The teachers union of grades 1-9 announced they will go to work, although the school day will end at 11:45 instead of 1pm. The high school union was already on strike.
Who is striking? The wealthier cities such as Tel Aviv, Ramat Gan, Givatayim, Herziliya, Ra’anana and Kfar Saba. Netanya will have a symbolic shutdown of some services for a very short period.
As for the businesses, some hi tech companies are allegedly striking as well as the large malls. As for the small business owners in the malls who have no choice but to adhere and who have suffered during this war …
All government offices are supposed to be on strike but the Director of Salaries in the Finance Ministry announced that those who strike will not get paid. There are, it seems, many government workers who have come to work.
The reservists fighting on all fronts are also not striking – of course.
Two organizations have gone to court to stop the strike. One, which also represents hostage families, Forum Tikva (although you wouldn’t know it from the MSM), as well as Forum Hagiborim (Heroes) representing families of soldiers killed in this war.
What happens when you have a workers strike and the workers go to work anyway? You have a trade union leader who gambled and lost. You have the use of a national strike for naked political purposes. You have the people who, once again, understand the situation more than their leaders. You have some anonymous “leaders” who have used the sorrow of desperate families for their own political ends.
There was a demonstration on behalf of the hostage families in Tel-Aviv last night in which somewhere between 80-100,000 showed up. A vast majority of those attending are truly sympathetic and concerned about their fellow citizens who are suffering in ways only they know. But the leaders who have imposed themselves upon the sympathetic and the desperate are interested in their own power. Because these supposed leaders control the conversation what could have been a unifying national memorial for the six hostages murdered in cold blood after 11 months under the barbaric hand of Hamas (credit to a Facebook post sent to me), turned into yet another demonstration, not against the government (that is a fig leaf), but for their own divisive power. Some comments by some government ministers were also meant to divide.
Alternatively, the Histadrut Trade Union could have called on all workers to stop working and stand in memory for one minute. Or five minutes. Or even one hour. That would have unified the country and shown Hamas and the rest of the world that while we have our differences, we are unified.
Pictured above are the billboards overlooking the main highway that cuts through Tel-Aviv – the Ayalon. It says “Am Yisrael Chai” - the People of Israel Live. That is representative of the 99.9% of the country who are sympathetic to these families, no matter the political differences.
Not so sure what these protesters think Israel should do? Give Hamas everything it wants? That would basically mean their death in the years to come. Because if they think Hamas is going to stop then they are dumber than they appear. So they hate Bibi so much they would slit their own throats.
But even more importantly, these idiots would actually trust Hamas to turn over the hostages even if they gave them everything they want in? What total asshats.
This is also not about the hostages. This is about the same thing as before oct 7. They used judicial reform to try to throw Bibi and his coalition out of government and now they are using the hostages for the same reason. They can't win an election so they are trying to force the government to conform to their point of view this way.
But this will give Biden/Harris the public leverage in the US to demand that Israel give Hamas everything it wants without them looking like they are abandoning Israel, which they want to so badly in order for the democrats to win the antisemites in Michigan and Minnesota.
Shame on the protestors. This is absolutely sickening.
As always, I have nothing to add to Ira's essay.
But I will try.
What the Union's attack showed me.
That Hamas has now realized that it can raise the price for the hostages even more, that it still has time to play its no-lose games of negotiation, that there is a chance that Hamas will not be punished for killing the hostages, and that it can benefit from the killings.
I really want to think that Hamas is wrong.