'Real dialog'

Israel's prime minister has vowed to "establish real dialog" with demonstrators after a quarter-million took to the streets of Tel Aviv this past weekend demanding government action to lower the cost of living.

"We can't ignore the magnitude of the social protests," Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday, speaking before a weekly cabinet meeting.

"We know that we need to make changes and we will do so, showing ourselves to be responsible and responsive to the demands," he added in remarks broadcast on public radio.

To that end, Netanyahu appointed a committee of experts to hold "a broad dialog with various sectors in the community," with Harvard-educated economist Manuel Trachtenberg at the helm.

"I have mixed feelings about being tasked with this mission, because changes are imperative, but the responsibilities and the risks are enormous," Trachtenberg told Israeli radio.

'Israeli Spring'

Protests continued Monday, in particular by outraged pensioners demanding lower costs for medication and students rallying to do away with tuition fees.

Nearly a month after protesters pitched the so-called tent city on one of Tel Aviv's main arteries, Rothschild Boulevard, an estimated 250,000 demonstrators rallied this weekend in Israel's economic capital. Entire families turned out in an inter-generational show of discontent with their financial situation.

Some Arab media referred to the popular protests as "Israeli Spring," implying that anti-government uprisings in the Arab world had now spread to the Jewish nation.

One reason analysts say the movement has gained such support is that, for once, the protests have nothing to do with Israeli-Palestinian relations. In fact, the movement has overshadowed Netanyahu's bid to counter the Palestinians' campaign to gain UN recognition this month.

No 'trickle down' here

From a purely economic standpoint, Israel is not performing poorly, even compared with other highly industrialized nations. The country of 7.7 million has a low unemployment rate of 5.7 percent and a growth projection of 4.8 percent for this year.

But protesters say business cartels and widening wage gaps are keeping ordinary citizens from reaping the benefits.

"Once we had the smallest gaps between rich and poor. We had the smallest gap in the world," one protester, Galia Golan, told German public radio. However, she said today Israel was "number one for the largest gaps between rich and poor."

"What we've been seeing for the past few weeks [is that] some people have simply had enough," said Golan.

Some 'justice'

Jerusalem has already taken some quick measures to show its support of the widespread cries for "social justice."

The government has cut taxes on industrial diesel fuel, leading to only a 12 percent increase in electricity costs, rather than the projected 20 percent. It also says it wants to increase imports to lower dairy prices and boost hospital staff numbers to address the demands of striking doctors.

Meanwhile, critics of the Jewish settlement in territories occupied since the 1967 Six-Day War are converting unrest in Tel Aviv into criticism of costly government settlement subventions.

Just last week, the government approved construction of 930 new homes in the East Jerusalem settlement of Har Homa.

In order to counter criticism against the settlements, settlement activist Baruch Marzel visited the tents in Tel Aviv.

"We cannot have millions of people in the small five miles of Tel Aviv. We have a bigger country - we have to put them all over," Marzel said.

"The minute they'll build in Judea and Samaria [in the West Bank] and in Jerusalem, there'll be enough houses for everybody."

'Social tact'

With so many sides to the story - and a global economic crisis that could eventually threaten Israel's wellbeing, Netanyahu recognizes he must exercise extreme care in handling the protests.

"We must act responsibly when it comes to our finances and, at the same time, to introducing changes that demonstrate social tact," he said.

Netanyahu's Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman has taken a less empathetic approach, telling reporters Sunday that, while protesters' demands were often justified, one only need take a look at Tel Aviv's packed cafés to see that the situation was not all that bad.

Authors: Torsten Teichman / David Levitz (AFP, Reuters)

Editor: Martin Kuebler