Page 10 - The Canadian Jewish News, Thursday, February 23,1984
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PHELIPGILtON
JERUSALEM [JCNS]
Dvorah, a veteran Israeli school principal, who hais come through all the countiy's wars and previous economic crises, said to me this week: "For the first time I'm really frightened about the future. I remember the tzena (austerity period) of the first years of the state when we were worse off for food than the British during the blitz. But we all said to one another it'll conic right. Now nobody is saying that."
Hie morale of Israelis has been shalten by two tilings: the prospect of lai^e-scale imeniployment and the broalcdown of the automatic Unlcage lietween rises fai the cost-of-living and payments of a cost-of-living aOowance.
For decades their two principles have been considered inviolate by successive governments, liibor-led and Likud-led: there must be full employment to attract immigration and discourage emigration, and tlie real purchasing power of wage earners nittst be preserved. These have now been breached.
Particularly hard hit by unemploymeiit are people without permanent tenure or in hajf-tinie jobs. Anybody with tenure cannot be dismissed without the consent of the labor union. So, institutions or firms forced to make cuts, are going for the most vulnerable. Many among the victims are immigrants and working wives who combine part-time work with running a household. As the extra jobs fold, family income invariably drops by a quarter to a third.
Also hit have lieen overtime payments. A baker, a father of six, with 30 years' experience in a Tel Ayiv bakery, expkUned how only a short wliile ago he was taldng home as much at 60,000 shekels a month [about $700] bat only by vhioe of patting hi 12
hoars a day. Now reduced to an 8-hoar dlay his income has been halved.
Among thFthreatened victims of cuts in public institutions are young academics and lecturers. Where will they turn?
Government spokesmen glibly trot out the idea of retraininig for productive industry. But one social science lecturer, whose university post may be on the line, asks bitterly: "Where, when and how?" These are the questions to which the economy has not addressed itself properly.
Most Israelis, however, are mianaging to cling to their jobs by^eir fingernails. But for the first time since galloping inflation took hold of the country they are finding it increasingly difficult to cope with its ravages.
The cost-of-living allowance is traditionally paid every three months and, in effectj neariy balanced the rate of inflation. The loss in the wage eartier's buying power was limited to a month or two.
Now the monthly — indeed weekly — rate pf inflation is so stupendous that a three months* wait is shattering. At the end of December, a 17.9% advance on the cost of living increment was paid and at the end of Januaiy it was made up to 24% ^
This is only a bagatelle since wages were stationary in October and November and the new raise is incomparable with the rise in prices that has set in since Finance Minister Yigal Cohen-Orgad introduced his new direction to the economy three months ago.
Hie cost of anything with a foreign carrency content hi its production Is rising like a rocketto the moon/Petrol, cooking gas, electricity and water bills have been going up by 10% a fortnight. Even people hi the higher incpme bracket, like engineers, with a basic take hdine packet of 80,000 shekels are liaving dtfiBculty in coping.
There is a well known Israeli ditty composed in brighter times when inflation
Israelis are trying to cope with the economic crisis wracWng the country.
was a mere 130% instead of the current 200% plus, "I can't get through the month." Now the ditty is: "I can't get through the week."
The average Israeli deposits his salary check in the bank in the first few days of the month and around the 20th of the month used to begin operating on an overdraft at a bearable rate of interest allowed him by his benevolent banker. Now he runs out pf resources by the 10th and the banker is no longer kind. Significantly the English word "over" has entered the Hebrew vocabulary. Totalkof one's "over" is like talking of one's cancer. ■.
Salaried Israelis have become a nation of calculators. One can no longer put ypiir salary in the bank and let it lie in the hppe that it will
last till the 20th. It has to be invested — in , foreign currency, index-Hnked bonds or otherwise juggled with through an array of financial shenanigans. One needs to go tp the bank virtually every day to ensure that the "investment" does not lose its purchasing ; power.
ShmuelZ. a Jerusalem doctor said to me: "My father is a yekke who went through Germany hi the 20s. He has often described inflatioh during the days of the Weimar Republic when a man had to take his salary hi bank notes in a suitcase in the morning and spend it by Innchtime or it would becdiine worthless. I fear we may be approaching that situation, only suitcases are l>ecoming a bit too expensive," he said wryly.
Letters of support pour m
GARLALPERT
HAIFA — -- .
Anyone seeking radio news and views on the Middle East has his choice of ho less than 53 stations broadcasting in Arabic. 6f these, 52 are operated by our neighbprs, near and far, and one is in Jerusalem. Eighteen hours a day, seven days a week, the program comes on iPud and clear: Huna Sawt Israil ^ This is the Voice of Israel.
One of the transmissionis, with 1200 kilowatts of power, can easily reach the U.S.S.R. in the north, Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia in the south, and Jordan, Iraq and the Persian gulf area to the east.
With so many other stations to listen to, why should Arabs anywhere tune in Israel?
The evidence that Sawt Israil has a large audience is very clear. For one thing, Arab papers in some countries from time to time publish articles or editorials taking issue with the broadcasts from Jerusalem. This would, appear to indicate that they are aware of the listening habits of their own pepple. At any rate, such attacks on our broadcasts, no matter how vitriolic, are received with great glee by the staff here, for they provide additional publicity and stimulate more curious auditors.
Furth^ evidence is to be found in the steady stream of mail which Sawt Israil receives, We sat in the broadcasting office in Jerusalem and looked over a sheaf of this week's mail. Letters from Egypt come directly, since there is postal communication between the two countries. Letters from Jordan are carried across the Jordan bridges and mailed within Israel. Others, coming from every comer of the Arab world, go to the post pffice box number in Geneva which is repeated frequently on the air.
Edmond Sehayek, an Iraqi-bom Jew, who has been with the broadcastingservice for the past 11 years, and is now Its director general, told us that some of the letters are anti-Israel. Others ask for Information, or request that favorite records be played. Not uncommon are appeals for medical help. Sehayek poshed a letter across the desk. It came firom a physician in Amman who asked the Voice pf Israel for help in having one of his patients
admitted to an Israel hospital for a delicate operation. He attached a faD medical diagnosis.
Such requests get prompt cooperation. A hospital is contacted, usually the Hadassah Hospital, and arrangements made. The Red Cross handles formalities of the entry into Israel, and our government is exfremely lenient. The visitors pay all their own cpsts.
The broadcasts run abput hdlf and half music and talk. The latter deals with Arab culture, full spprts cpverage, family and social problems, review of the Arabic and world press, and of course cpmmentary on political issues. There are certain basic principles which our broadcasts adhere to steadfastly, Sehayek told us:
Alwaystell the truth. The reputation of the program rests oh thefar rellablUty. This is in great contrast to most of the "competitive" stations wiiich seldom enjoy the confidence even of the citizens of theh* own country.
Political presentatipns are made in low key
—-soft-spoken and in quiet tones. This too is in contrast to the bombastic shouting which characterizes so much of the Arab prbpa-ganda on the air. The calm and deliberate iiote of our presientation seems to infuriate the Arab spokesmen.
The purpose is to promote peace, not to aggravate further hostility, hence there is nothing antagonistic, even in addressing enemies. Tomorrow King Hussein may sit down and talk to lis, as. did Sadat, so every effort is made to preserve a receptive atmosphere. Admittedly the tone is somewhat different in attitudes to Assad of Syria and Gadaffi of Libya, both of whom are avowed and intractable enemies.
The news about Israel emphasizes the positive and constructive. Flaws and problems are not ignored, but they are not the feature material -as in so much of Israel's domestic television and radio broadcasts to the Israelis themselves. In this sense, it has been saidrthe Arabic Sawt Israil is much more "Zionist.'' Many of the things reported do not always make headlines at home.
If someone should throw a stone at a bus in Hebron, Sehayek said* provoking reaction by Jewish settlers, it makes headlines and soon gets; reflected in the foreign press, and one would get the impression that genocide is going on. But when the Israel government
spent 32,000,000 shekels to build a road tp El Birah, pf use only to the Arabs, and for their transport and commimications convenience; no newspaper paid any heed. Sawt Israil makes sure that things like these are reported.
In addition to the staff announcers, prominent Arabs both from Israel and from the occupied areas are also given a voice. They are even free to criticize Israel policies.
so Ipng as they express themselves in dignified and civilized fashion. This, too, contributes to the credibility of the Israel broadcasts since such freedom of expression would never be permitted in any Arab country in the world.
And that is why uncounted and uncountable Arabs throughout this vast area listen with some respect when the announcer says: Huha Sawt Israil.
DOMESTIC MINISTER
= Sara Doron is the only woman hi the IsraeUi^faiet.PoUtics keeps the mln^ |
1 without-portfollo busy, but she always finds time to attend to domestic matters. [IPPA E
I Photo] ■/ I
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