Workers, voters, dodgers and bikers

The general strike might be over, but labor is still a major issue in Israel. This time the crisis that continues to be on people’s minds and on front pages is the shutting down of the Pri Hagalil factory.

There is no disputing that the Israeli press is an advocate for the Pri Hagalil workers, who showed up at the factory on Sunday hoping the owners had reconsidered their decision to close it, only to find the gate locked. Some 200 employees (the figure differs) are now jobless.

Yedioth Ahronoth adopts the tone of the workers, quoting one of the suddenly laid-off saying “[the owners] cast us out like curs.” Haaretz’s Gideon Levy waxes poetic about the emotional plight of those who are now jobless and are “sick of being hostages.” Israel Hayom also expresses empathy with the Pri HaGalil laborers by relating the woes of Simcha Malka, a former employee with a sick wife at home. Maariv’s headline reads, “The factory’s closed, although the owners earned millions of shekels,” in clear sympathy with the low-wage employees now out of work.

On the verge of Syrian democracy

Syrians voted in a constitutional referendum yesterday and it barely made it to the front pages of Israeli newspapers. Israel Hayom managed to devote a partial column to the story. Perhaps that’s because Assad’s soldiers are still killing the Syrian people. Haaretz’s headline runs: “Assad calls upon his citizens to vote on a new constitution, his army continues to slaughter in the streets.” Yedioth Ahronoth puts yesterday’s death toll as 60.

Maariv reports that in the coming week the 14 million eligible Syrian voters will cast their ballots. The turnout for the national referendum was hailed by government press as “higher than expected.” Opposition groups called the referendum a sham and, contrary to the government, reported low voter turnout. For Syrians to vote amid the shelling and bombing would be extraordinary; Israelis barely go to vote when it rains.

The proposed constitution is based on “political pluralism,” meaning not only the Ba’ath party and its figurehead Bashar Assad will rule. Nonetheless, notes Israel Hayom, a clause exists in the new constitution that the reforms will not affect the current presidency, and will not take effect until the next elections in 2014.

Although the Israeli government has been notably silent on the Syrian issue, Noah Kleiger is not. He writes in Yedioth Ahronoth that the past year’s events in Syria are the genocidal acts of a Western-educated, cultured leader turned “cruel, blood-thirsty dictator.” Throughout this planned genocide of dissenters, the world is silent. Kleiger excoriates the international community’s inaction in Syria compared to its hasty assistance to Libyan rebels when they arose to overthrow Gaddafi. He condemns the latest meeting in Tunis of American, European, and Arab so-called “Friends of Syria” as “just talk.”

The universal draft debate

Maariv is the only paper that finds the ultra-Orthodox scramble to combat the draft more pressing than the plight of the Galilean laborers. Last night, Interior Minister Eli Yishai of the religious Shas party met with prominent rabbis in Bnei Brak to discuss the dissolution of the Tal Law.

Rabbi Aharon Steinman, the heir apparent to the infirm Lithuanian leader Rabbi Yosef Shalom Elyashiv, called the High Court of Justice’s ruling against the Tal Law’s exemption of ultra-Orthodox men from military service “a great misfortune.”

“Every time they conspire against those who learn Torah. Learning Torah is the most important thing for the Jewish people. We have no right to exist as a nation without Torah study. Throughout the history of the Jewish people, we survived thanks to the Torah, and to this we must devote our souls,” Rabbi Steinman said.

The ultra-Orthodox have little to worry about, Yagil Levy says in Haaretz. The Open University professor reasons that universal military service in Israel is a fantasy. Rather than leveling the playing field for the draft, the High Court of Justice’s ruling spells the end of mandatory service. Financial and social pressure to establish a more equal system of military and civil service with fair pay will lead to the dissolution of the universal draft. It will be replaced, Levy argues, with a selective draft or a volunteer army.

Moving right along: trains and automobiles

Haaretz leaks Transportation Minister Yisrael Katz’s plan for 475 kilometers of train routes crisscrossing the West Bank. According to Haaretz, the extensive infrastructure plans were submitted to the Civil Administration’s senior planning council in December.

Eleven new tracks would connect existing Israel Railways lines to all of the major Palestinian cities and the contested Israeli towns of Ma’aleh Adumim and Ariel. The main line, connecting Jenin, Nablus, Ramallah, Jerusalem, Bethlehem, and Hebron, will run along the spine of the Judean hills.

World oil prices are reaching $109 a barrel. Israelis are increasingly concerned about rising gas prices, which will reach a new record of 8 NIS per liter (roughly $8 per gallon) this week. Israel Hayom reports that Knesset Finance Committee Chairman MK Shama-Hacohen (Likud) is trying to mitigate the rising cost of fuel by passing a law to reduce value-added tax (VAT) on gasoline.

Yedioth Ahronoth advocates a more individual approach: “fuel discipline.” Israelis are riding bikes or carpooling to accommodate the rising cost. As more Israelis ride their bikes to work, more offices provide showers and puncture repair kits for their employees. Yedioth also features five tips to reduce gas consumption for the fuel-frugal, like driving slower and filling your tires.