We Must Band Together if this Social Revolution is to Work

We have a lot on our plates now. People and sectors from throughout the country are calling for social and economic reform. the doctors, and the nurses, the university and college students, young professionals, the teachers, the parents, the adjuncts in Israeli academic institutions, the taxi drivers, the dairy farmers are calling out that the current system cannot go on. The Palestinian-Israeli conflict has not come to resolution, the Israeli air force bombed targets in Gaza, a woman in Israel was injured from a rocket attack yesterday, more killing in the West Bank, perhaps a Palestinian state on the way in September, negotiations still stalled.

Whew...

Our struggles are connected: the social-economic injustices that make it very very difficult, if not impossible, to secure housing, medical attention, good schooling, fair pay and working conditions for the middle class are also tied to the ongoing conflict, the billions and billions of shkalim (the Israeli currency) spent on defense and security, and the billions poured into Jewish-Israeli settlements in the West Bank.

I am not an economist, and really have a rather poor understanding of the intricacies of economic planning and spending. But what I do know is that a market and system that favor the very very very rich and places so much of the burden on the middle class and ignores the poor, is not a good system. What I do know is that billions and billions of shkalim that are put toward defense, security and settlements, means that there is nowhere enough left for life - for school, housing, education, health, the arts.

What I do know is that if this social-economic revolution is to work, then all of us need to band together. Not just the middle class, not just the young and secular Jews, but the older, the poorer, the disenfranchised, the religious, the Arab citizens of the country, the handicapped, people from the Tel Aviv metropolis and from the peripheries. We need to be a very inclusive social movement, one that demands these basic rights for everyone of us.

This is not a new mantra
Many have said this more eloquently than I have in the past, and I have no doubt that others will do so more eloquently in the future.
However, the message is clear - If we want a more socially just society, then we must come together, to work together, to demand rights for everyone of us.

The woman that was injured in the rocket attack yesterday, is a Bedouin, who was sleeping in a tent.
The rockets do not differentiate between Arab and Jew
The air force attacks in Gaza harm innocent people - they do not differentiate between Hamas militant and young child.
The ridiculously high prices of apartments and houses for the ridiculously rich do not differentiate between Jew and Arab - they differentiate only between the very very rich and all the rest of us

Our social problems were not caused by this people or that.
They are not the fault of the "Arabs", of the "infiltrators" (from Africa, looking for asylum and a life free from poverty and oppression). They are caused by a rotten social-economic system that makes war against most of the citizens, and dismisses their/our needs in the most cynical of fashion.

WE MUST ALL BAND TOGETHER IF THIS REVOLUTION IS TO SUCCEED.
IT IS NOT US AGAINST THEM, IT IS US - ALL OF US - AGAINST GREED AND OPPRESSION AND CYNICAL DISMISSAL OF LIFE

By joining hands forces in this struggle, we can make a change. By showing that we truly care for one another, we can make this work.

Let's make it work.