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Abuse Is Neither Protection nor Love
What is happening to my country of Israel is heartbreaking and terrifying. Since March, the government has robbed us of our fundamental freedom; they took power over every aspect of our lives. They surveil us like suspected terrorists; they give us fines for not obeying arbitrary orders; they forbid us to earn a living, pushing a growing number of citizens into financial destitution.
To defend those totalitarian policies, they claim to protect us. Do they really protect us when they forbid us from providing for our families and forming healthy human relationships?
The “protector” starts to look more like an abuser than a benevolent figure.
The government is transforming our national creativity, youthfulness, chutzpah, and freedom into total submission to the State. They are making us their slaves.
First, then put us in a digital prison. All of our online activities are monitored. They know who we meet, how long we spend with our friends, where we shop, where we walk. They trace every action we take during the day. It’s one of the most intrusive surveillance systems in the world. Does it sound like an abuser power play or a benevolent protector?
Second, they forbid us from earning a living and be financially independent. Without jobs and earnings, citizens are reliant on the abuser to survive. As the State creates more unemployed, ruined businesses, more people become totally dependent on welfare and loose financial freedom. Soon, most families in Israel will depend on the State’s “benevolence” to give them enough money to survive.
Third, they force on us in a social jail. Israeli society is built on human relationships; we are friendly, chatting, fun-loving people. Doing things together is our strength. The effect of this control is more pernicious, but it is the most dangerous of all. We will soon forget how to smile at each other, welcome the stranger among us, and even entertain a normal conversation. We are already forbidden to burry our deads together or celebrate our children’s weddings. We are kept away from each other, because, for an abuser, division and isolation are tools for control.
They now control us digitally, economically, and socially, they haven’t yet hopefully achieve total control on our thoughts and common sense for survival. There is a way to break from an abusive relationship, but it requires determination and risk-taking. Let’s hope that enough Israelis will want to break free and build a more secure environment. Our future is in our hands!
Published in General
I thought you were talking about the US until I go to this sentence, but what you say applies here as well . . .
I also thought you were talking about the U.S., but it could be Israel, Italy, England, anywhere because what you describe is happening worldwide. What makes me even more upset is the support city officials are giving to the thugs who call themselves protesters here in the U.S., that are destroying businesses after these same businesses had to endure a lock-down and needed to re-open! They are interrupting law enforcement to do their jobs, and as crime is rising, businesses and property owners are under more dire threats than just a virus!
You are right about human dignity and spiritual health being under assault. Stand firm in your convictions – that is what matters.
The only cure I can think of for the global economic slowdown is for the private sector to amass an army of lobbyists who can make the government realize that we will all soon run out of goods, services, and money if the government doesn’t get out of the way. For everyone’s sake, this needs to happen sooner rather than later.
and
Sorry, but your second point, about deliberate efforts to induce economic dependence on the State, is ridiculous on its face.
איזו שטות, רחמנא ליצלן
We’re talking here about a country where the vast majority of the Jewish citizens quite correctly criticizes the perverse willingness of the vast majority of the Hareidi sector to live on welfare, where the central government’s office of the chief scientist issues the same warning reports all the time about insufficient education investment putting future employment growth in the high-tech sector at risk, and where the prime minister of these past ten years (who also served as finance minister in a government before then) is well-known to be an admirer of Margaret Thatcher.
Please, take a deep breath.
I’m curious about the surveillance system. How does the state know where you are, who you’re meeting, and for how long? Cameras? GPS tracking? Do you know the methods used? This could be helpful for the rest of us.
They track us through our SIM. The only way to avoid surveillance is to leave your phone at home. This is an article that reviews the technology in more detail: https://www.brookings.edu/techstream/how-israels-covid-19-mass-surveillance-operation-works/. I hope it helps.
I don’t think we can deny the total destruction of small and micro businesses and self-employed. Those people until the lockdown earn a living B’Kavod and were financially independent of the State. So after taking many breaths, I will continue supporting my point. Bibi was never Thatcher even in 1996, at the height of his “free market” ideology, in the past 10 years he has always sided with monopolies, tycoons, unions and special interest groups…a long way from Margaret or Ronald Reagan
I would have thought this would have happened by now. The obvious answer is that the money and power people are making / getting money and power and thus will ignore us plebs as they will and use parts of us to beat on the other parts they want destroyed.
Shoot, Corinne, are we even in the same country? I have been back at work for over a month now, and as long as none of our charges or our staff get COVID-19, we’re going to keep on working. I go to work on public transportation, it takes me over an hour to get in, and I ride two buses and a train. Yes, I wear a mask, but no, it’s not a big deal. I see all of my kids regularly, and the one son who lives with us has been working at a mini-market in the heart of the ultra-Orthodox area of Mea Shearim all the way through the pandemic. We are all still fine, thank G-d.
I go to the shuk in Jerusalem, I go downtown, I go to the supermarket. My dentist is a bit behind in his appointments, but he took care of both me and my son recently. They check temperatures a lot, my workplace asks for a daily health verification from all workers who come on site regularly.
As to whether our internet communications are “being monitored”, I always assume that they can find me anywhere in the world if my phone is on. As far as the ability of the government to monitor us, hell, it has always been a small country.
I worked through two intifadas, two wars in Lebanon, some Gaza incursions, the Gulf Wars, gas masks, sirens, and the like. I can still get milk for coffee and the occasional Cola Zero.
Where do you live that you are so freaked out? יהיה בסדר!
Yes, we need fewer government concerns, fewer monopolies, and less regulation, but I came here in 1983 when it was still real socialism. Things are doing much, much better. Yes, it should go faster, but there is no longer the sense that things will never change. Things change all the time, a lot. My neighbor’s father had to leave the country in the ’50s because he wouldn’t join the Histadrut labor union, so no one would give them work and they were starving. That’s not happening now.
Who’s “forgotten to smile”? We smile just as much as ever. This too, will pass.
And as far as the government being able to track us if they want, as I said, this has always been a very small country where everybody knows each other. There have been instances over the last 30-something years when it has come to my attention that we had been checked up on for one thing or another (admission to IDF officer’s course, a couple of other security assessments) and believe me, it was easy for them to find out what they wanted to know (quite accurately) well before anyone could track a SIM card. These are, after all, the people who brought Eichmann back from Argentina, rescued the hostages from Entebbe, blew up the reactor, and swiped Iran’s nuclear secrets. They COULD find out pretty much anything about me if they wanted to, but there’s no reason for them to.
I am really happy things are still going well for you. My reality is indeed very different and we live in the same city. I hope you are right and that it will be OK for all of us.