Woe unto the middle class

Israelis and Jews around the world are marking the ninth of the month of Av today, a day of mourning for the two destroyed Jewish Temples and a host of other bad things that have befallen the Jewish people on this day, and on pretty much every other day, too. Readers of Israeli papers this morning might think it’s time to add another tragedy to the roster, the destruction of the middle class.

While art from the Olympic opening ceremony is the most eye catching thing on many front pages this morning, all four papers have prominent coverage of the plan to raise the income tax for some by a whopping one percent, which in Yedioth Ahronoth’s words, is being done “On the back of the middle class.” This is on top of the ministry budget cuts and increases to sales and sin taxes that have already been decreed.

The paper’s Sever Plotzker dons sackcloth and ash and laments the harsh decree from the viziers of the Finance Ministry. “The tongue of the suckling child cleaves to his palate through thirst; the young children beg [for] bread, [but] no one breaks it for them.”

Whoops, I mean: “Under pressure of time and with a certain social worldview, the government chose tax solutions that will be easy for the government and hard for the people.… The government has no intention of keeping to the cuts and decreases in taxes previously granted to preferred groups and sectors amounting to billions.”

Inside, the paper features profiles of two middle class families who will soon be forced to live in a van down by the river. The Ben Shushan family will have to pay an extra NIS 318 a month with all the changes and the Ariel family NIS 136.50. At least they won’t have to boil and eat their own children, yet.

On the other side of the coin, Israel Hayom, seen by some as being a mouthpiece for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, quotes Bank of Israel Governor Stanley Fischer saying the tax increases and other measures are essential. A typographical error makes it hard to see where Fischer’s quote ends but he basically says that the government needs to balance dealing with a reeling Europe while at the same time trying to reconcile the large budget deficit it is facing. “If we don’t take care of it, the [problems] will be on top of us” he may or may not have said.

The release of video purportedly showing the kidnapping of IDF soldiers Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev in 2006 is also front page fodder. Maariv writes that the release of the video is no coincidence, but meant as a power-saving measure by Hezbollah, which is seeing its fortunes fall along with patron Bashar Assad, the embattled president of Syria. By releasing the video, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah is trying to cement his organization’s place as the savior of Lebanon.

“Proof of the influence Syrian violence has on the decision to release the video can be seen in the two minute introduction by the video’s presenter Rassan Bin Jido, who heaps praise on the ‘opposition’ that kidnapped Israeli soldiers to win the release of those in Israeli prison and on the professionalism of the Hezbollah fighters opposite the criticism of Arab leaders following the kidnapping.”

Yedioth Ahronoth’s Ronen Bergman focuses in on the telling fact that the video cuts off at the moment the kidnapping takes place. “It’s reasonable to assume that Nasrallah decided to hold on to this piece for another time, when the crisis worsens and he wants to shock Israeli viewers again.

Haaretz leads off with a story that White House adviser Tom Donilon, who recently made a secret visit to Israel, told Jerusalem’s leaders of a US backup plan for a strike on Iran. According to the article “Donilon sought to make clear that the United States is seriously preparing for the possibility that negotiations will reach a dead end and military action will become necessary. He said reports of such preparations were not just a way to assuage Israel’s concerns.” Netanyahu’s office later denied the report.

Maariv takes note of the rash of Israelis killed abroad this month, most of them in non-terror related activity. In the last weeks alone, six Israelis were killed in car accidents or other freak tragedies, like Hadas Ben Shushan, killed by a falling rock while hiking in India, or Guy Hendel, who was found dead in his Andorra hotel room. It also lists the most beautiful and dangerous places to visit, all but one of which are in Latin America. Moral of the story: If you want to travel but don’t want to die, stay out of any Spanish-speaking locale.

Israel Hayom’s op-ed page marks the day of mourning today with two op-eds. Aviad Cohen writes that the factors which lead to the destruction of the second temple, groundless hatred, are still at play today, using the story of Kamza and Bar Kamza, about a man called to a feast by accident and humiliated in front of the crowds, as an example: “The story of Kamza and Bar Kamza reveals a closed society , without patience, whose strength and violence were its main symbols, which was able to bring about the destruction of the Temple. Also in those days, also in these days.”

Next door, Nadav Shragai writes that the day should be used as a way to bridge the polar sectors of Israeli society. “The Temple Mount, where the two Temples burned, needs to be the center of [life] today, and Jews need to go from the Western Wall to its gates, but [rebuilding] the Temple cannot be the only motto. The wider Jewish public is not connected to the reality of today, and the stubbornness about the Temple will distance us rather than bring us closer.”

Haaretz slams a different kind of destruction, that of Palestinian buildings in the southern Hebron Hills that the IDF wants razed because it is sitting in a live fire zone: “While the state fosters the settlements and avoids evacuating the outposts – including some established on privately-owned Palestinian land — it is miserly when it comes to issuing master plans and building permits for Palestinians under its aegis. … According to international law, the land under contention in the Hebron Hills – like all the land in the West Bank — is occupied land. The eviction of hundreds of farmers and shepherds using the pretext of ‘firing zones’ is pyromania.”