The Israel Nightmare

Israel whose creation and continued existence is something in the realm of the miraculous as a tiny Jewish enclave and bastion of Western Democratic values in a sea of Muslim dictatorship much of it dedicated to the totalitarian proposition of pushing the Jews into the sea, faces a stifling internal dynamic which even lacking an existential threat would be difficult to endure. There is a labor organization called the Histadrut which has prevented the implementation of much of the capitalistic reform that could have increased prosperity. School instructors at all levels even that of the university have recently routinely gone on strike. Students have struck in solidarity. Ben Gurion Airport workers in the past have staged strikes or wildcat walkouts that have caused visitors and travelers all measure of inconvenience. There is a pervasive mafia which of late has been engaged in a bloody gang war purportedly over recycling, Jew killing Jew over who can steal the most garbage. While there thankfully has not been violence to the level of the recent troubles in Greece, while travelers have not so far been stranded for days as they were in Thailand, and while organized crime does not seem to have quite the reach it enjoys in Sicily, the Jews have showed they are no pikers. From leading the world in the distribution of the club drug Ecstasy to having the former Prime Minister Sharon's son convicted and incarcerated, to having a legal cloud hanging over current Prime Minister Olmert, to allegations of Chicago- style corruption in almost every election, the Holy Land has been tainted enough that she might implode. Netanyahu must love the state and the people or be insane. Only a mad man or great patriot would want to clean this Augean Stable.