always proud of its "mutual responsibility," the fact that nobody went hungry in our society, that the incapacitated, sick, old, and unemployed were protected by the whole of society. Once, when I was asked what being a Jew meant to me in my childhood, I mentioned compassion, together with seeking justice, hating violence, striving for peace, and loving education.
Not any more. After two years of the al-Aqsa Intifada, the senses of Israeli society have become almost completely blunted. The terrible things that happen daily in the occupied territories pass without mention. "Closures" and curfews that last for months, hunger and thirst, sick people dying for lack of treatment, the demolition of homes, and the uprooting of groves-these are "small change," routine matters. Men, women, and children shot by snipers in their homes and on the streets? Who cares? A young American woman crushed to death by a giant bulldozer while trying to prevent the demolition of a Palestinian home? So what. She deserved it, anyway. A stone-throwing Palestinian boy shot dead by a tank? Three lines in the paper. Maybe not even that.
The callousness has spread from the occupied territories into Israel itself. Photos in the paper show people rummaging in garbage bins? Well, that's how it is. Government offices send hungry poor people to get a free meal at private charities? Who cares?
The new Minister of the Treasury, Binyamin Netanyahu, a man who receives $50,000 for a single lecture in the United States, has submitted an economic plan that hurts the poorest of the poor. It reduces monthly old-age allowances (to less than $300), child allowances, unemployment payments, subsidies for homes for retarded children and the elderly, and the education and health budgets.
Does the public revolt? Do masses of students take to the streets? Do the media explode in anger? Does the opposition in the Knesset (if there is such an animal) shake heaven and earth? Not at all. The Trade Union Federation (Histadrut), representing the strongest and richest workers' committees, threatens a general strike. What else? Here and there a politician issues a statement, hoping to get into the headlines. Here and there a handful of people of conscience protest. Here and there a columnist writes an indignant article. And that's that. So the poor will be a little poorer and the rich a little richer. Big deal.
When Netanyahu himself is asked about the plan, he resorts to the well-established Israeli line: there is no alternative. The Israeli economy is sinking. It's all the fault of Arafat. The intifada has destroyed our economy.
And that is a new thing altogether, with far-reaching implications.
This needs an explanation: for more than five decades, Israeli