3. Taxes, Religion and God bless America (no matter what God)
Israelis call their Knesset, the Parliament ‘the one and only cubic circus’. The meaning of this is that from the point of view of an average Israeli those folks in Knesset are all working to make his life as miserable as possible. Like they just had revived the Ministry
of the Religious Affairs: (http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/944631.html).
Obviously the outrage is associated with the simple fact that the main burden of taxation falls on the ‘Israelis who follow the traditions’, not on the Haredim, the religious group, represented by the Shas party. Practically ALL the people I talked to complained that religious Jews were parasites, did not have to go to the army, did not have to work, paid very little taxes and had a disproportional political influence. This influence is due to the peculiar election system: Israelis do not have a constitution and the system can be called something like ‘democratic theo-mobocracy’. The people vote for the parties and then the power belongs to the winning party +coalition partners if one party is not enough to form the government. Shas, enjoying a 100%-loyal constituency usually decides the fate of the elections by allying with one of the big parties. It then gets the best administrative ministries.
Israel does have a national healthcare system
but its pension accommodations are meniscule. This contributes to the bitterness of those who have to work until they reach the age of 67 ( males) or 65 ( females), pay 37% in taxes and send their children to the army. Among the Jewish people I spoke with 99% stated that they would love to see Israel as a secular state where religion is separated from the state functions. And rightfully so! Those our folks who are eager to get religion to mingle with politics should visit Israel as a negative model. Simply put the rabbinate mafia controls the Israeli society because they have a final word in defining who is the Jew. In the ‘Jewish state’ such privilege automatically guarantees an absolute power.
As an example, the Israeli buerocracy does not recognize the secular marriage and insists on the religious ceremony. To perform that ceremony you have to be granted a permission from the rabbies that you are a real Jew. That automatically excludes atheists, agnostics, people with non- Jewish mothers, etc, etc. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jewish_view_of_marriage.
Funny thing that ‘tainted Jews’ still have to go to the army and pay taxes but for some reason they cannot marry in their own country even if they are as Likudniks as possible.
So thousands of young people have to go to Cyprus and marry there, so that they have a legal certificate recognized by an Israeli govt. I told the folks there that it was high time for them to open a debate on the issue of ‘who is a real Jew?’ with the conclusion that the real Jew is the one who pays taxes and follows the secular laws and that rabbis should go .. you know where. Let them follow the God Blessed America practice where the religious leadership is hired by the community and as such can also be fired. What a perfect concept. I salute the US religious practice. May Jehovah, Christ and Allah bless America!
The Jewish folks also complain that Israeli Arabs do not seem to pay property taxes and that the Israeli tax police does not enforce the law in those cases. I am not sure they describe the situation to me properly. It seems that rather the Arabs are in constant dispute with the Israeli tax laws about the way property is assessed and tax defined. I do not insist on that guess of mine; any reader is welcome to follow suite and investigate on his/her own.
4. Holy Places
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