A State That Must Put Its Own Citizens First

This is a cleaned-up, edited version of a dictated first-person statement. It serves as the case-study foundation for the citizens-first policy area.

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The State of Israel has failed its citizens in the last war.

Civilian preparedness: the shelters

During the Iranian war we saw an incredible lack of preparation and foresight in civilian preparedness. Shelters were dilapidated and often lacked basic tooling.

My building had no shelter, so we sheltered in a public one. There was literally sewage dripping into it. Disgusting.

The other failures stack up

The education system is showing worrying signs — I think with a lot of downstream repercussions for STEM subjects. There is the rental crisis and the housing crisis, as I have described elsewhere. There is the regulatory crisis.

And yet the government finds abundant time to set up departments and organisations whose mission is something like protecting Jews around the world, fighting antisemitism, and defending Israel’s image in the PR war.

The argument

My point is that the State of Israel needs to put its citizens first, and accept that no democratic country can see itself as the exclusive protector of — nor speak for — coreligionists who have chosen not to opt into its politics.

We have created a dangerous precedent of conflating Judaism and Israeli identity every time we speak on behalf of world Jews, some of whom repudiate Zionism and Israel. I don’t think it is a legitimate form of representation.

Contracting and eliminating all this unnecessary spending would free up valuable budget for the benefit of the people who have actually chosen to make their lives here and contribute to the country.

At this juncture, Israel has to realise that continuing to view itself as the guardian of world Jewry is a task that cannot be maintained indefinitely.