More Than Meets The Eye Under Those Tents

*Ohelei Levana

Is anyone really analyzing

what this "protest" phenomenon is really about?

The above title is a play on Kobi Arieli's facebook page *rant on the 'White Tribe', partly appearing as A 'Totalitarian Media' Hoax, at Arutz Sheva. I've never heard of Kobi Arieli, but after reading about him, he sounds for real.

He says some real things, like "There is no social protest. The protest is a Ynet protest. It exists in Yediot Aharonot, Ynet and Channel 2 news -- three totalitarian media outlets that shamelessly host it and provide it with life, day after day, week after week. Take the media out of the protest – and there is no protest… The entire media has been enlisted to its own tribal party"

Gil Ronen at INNnews says that the Press has inflated the number of protestors, from 300,000 to, in actuality, 65,000. This seems to add to Kobi's assertions.

Perhaps those behind this group made it "their" problem in order to subvert the public, undermine the government, all to push the "leftist agenda" to bring down this government because this government is not giving away our Land fast enough? Is their agenda really the Arab agenda! Could it be that they are hoping to mesh their agenda with the September Arab agenda, only a month away.

Kobi says our Government is "not to blame for anything. It is stable, strong and has a well thought out economic agenda. One does not need to agree with its world view, but we should be proud that this is one of the only [Israeli] governments that has an ordered fiscal outlook".

Kobi adds, what especially sounds like an honest appraisal, "'Additional targets of the 'protest' are the 'parasitical' sectors that contribute nothing and which the middle class has to carry on its back… There are four such sectors, if I understand correctly: hareidis, Arabs, settlers and poor people. You will never hear about two of these: not about poor people, because it is not nice to attack poor people, and not about Arabs, because this contradicts another of the Tribe's principles – the Tribe is supposed to like Arabs (originally, the White Tribe is 'leftist'). Therefore you will only hear complaints about settlers and hareidis. "

But Tent City, the Haredim and Settlers want to join in to help your endeavor to succeed. Why are you rebuffing them? Perhaps this group has taken a legitimate problem that exists, mostly for those excluded [i.e., the Haredim, and the so-called 'Settlers', the really really poor, such as that of M.D., a tent-city resident in Jesse Cohen, who has been homeless for years. And who appears in an article nearly a half-page in the Monday JPost print edition, pg 3.], and brought it out into the open. However it affects them, they are not the really needy.

The Haredim support honest efforts. The Paamonim Organization has begun to offer "Financial Planning" counseling to the families in the tents. They indicate that housing has become a "matter of concern", but also emphasize the importance of personal responsibility, and learning how to balance budgets. You can learn about Paamonim here.

The religious have been crying out for years about housing shortage. "Maybe now that the leftist activists are on the streets, the government will be forced ...".

And the settlers contributed with their "Blessing of the Tent" handouts.]

The leftists have been bemoaning the so-called laziness of the religious. But what happens if this group suddenly floods the job market like they did at the "Haredi Religious Community Floods Job Fair," at which 4,000 men and women searched for new employment opportunities. Will the leftists then bemoan that not enough opportunities exist?

Kobi says, to the chagrin of many, "The argument that says 'it's all the settlers' fault' is a political argument and therefore not valid… Political arguments are decided at the ballot box. Surprise: it was decided at the ballot box."

But, Kobi, maybe what started as a Media "White Tribal" incentive has taken hold and the REAL needy people finally have a (leftist) 'voice' that the government is listening to? Maybe these tents will blossom into much needed affordable housing. What we don't need is to exclude those who truly need a real roof over their head and not a political tent.

On the other hand, when one reads articles like this Swelling list of demands fuels Israel protests in the Financial Times, accompanied by a gruesome picture of protesters with expressions like those one sees in coverage of the similar in Egypt or elsewhere, then one must give pause to reason.

These are not the Tent City residents I see on the Ben Yehuda triangle!

Who are they?

Especially when FT writes: "The ultra-Orthodox have long drawn the ire of Israel’s more secular middle class. Not only do they depend on generous state handouts to support their large families, but most also refuse to serve in the Israeli army. The settlers, meanwhile, enjoy cheap, subsidised housing and benefit from public services that are far superior to those available to Israelis living inside the Green Line." This is media incitement.

Is there a media campaign beginning to sweep the newsworld? Another sinister act of written warfare? CNBC's Global Unrest is connecting the Tent City people in Israel to that of rioting in Great Britain, Spain, Greece, Portugal, the Phillipines, China, and of all places, Syria. However, they didn't mention America: Philadelphia, Chicago, D.C., California. Something is dramatically wrong here! Maybe Kobi is on target?

It would serve the media of the world best if instead of inciteful reporting, that plays into the fanatical facebookers and twitterers as they jump into Flash Mobs rioting all over the map, in anger, destruction, and bloodshed. The "race riots" in North London are an example of this type of incitement and rioting.

What started out as "we the people" type 'friendly singing or dancing', has been usurped by gangsters, with their brand of 'people unfriendly attacks." The media should be using wise language to report and quell incitement. We don't all have to know the devilish of actions by irrational terror gangs.

Are they fueling the public in anticipation of the "Big September Lie" to be perpetrated by the UN upon Israel and the Jewish Nation?