THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
An Online Journal of Political Commentary & Analysis
Volume XIII, Issue # 190, August 3, 2011
Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
Government Committed to & Acting in Accord with Conservative Principles
Ensures a Nation's Strength, Progress, & Prosperity
ISRAEL'S COTTAGE-CHEESE REBELLION
By Daniel Doron
ISRAEL: POLITICS, THE ECONOMY, & GROWING POPULAR DISCONTENT -- WIDESPREAD PROTESTS THIS SUMMER
OVER RAPIDLY RISING FOOD PRICES -- PROTESTS THAT COULD ESCALATE INTO A POPULAR UPRISING AGAINST A
DYSFUNCTIONAL POLITICAL SYSTEM & AN UNCOMPETITIVE ECONOMIC SYSTEM LONG CONTROLLED BY GOVERNMENT
AGENCIES, PRIVATE BUSINESS & INDUSTRIAL MONOPOLIES, & GOVERNMENT-FAVORED CARTELS -- ISRAELI CONSUMERS AT
THE MERCY OF THOSE WHO CONTROL THE ECONOMY & INFLATE PRICES BY 100% OR MORE -- HIGH & REGRESSIVE TAXES,
BUREAUCRACY, COSTLY REGULATIONS, & MISALLOCATION OF CREDIT STYMYING ENTREPRENEURSHIP & INHIBITING
ECONOMIC GROWTH -- THE DIRE NEED FOR EFFECTIVE FREE-MARKET REFORMS IN ISRAEL
FULL STORY:
This Spring's Arab revolts were ignited by rapidly rising food prices, but they soon mutated into political rebellions
protesting decades of brutal oppression. Similarly, rising food prices in Israel have led to widespread protests this
Summer — dubbed the "cottage-cheese rebellion" — which could grow into an uprising against a dysfunctional political
system and an economic system long controlled by monopolies and cartels.
In April, 2010, the Bank of Israel's annual report on the economy included a study showing that "some 20 business
groups, nearly all of a family nature and structured in a pronounced pyramid form, continue to control a large proportion
of public firms (some 25% of firms listed for trading) and about half of market share." Despite Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu's efforts to introduce free-market reforms, not much has improved over the past year. From diapers to cars, the
Israeli consumer is at the mercy of local manufacturers and government-certified importers, monopolies, and cartels that
inflate prices by 100% and more.
The cottage-cheese rebellion started after a major business publication ran a series of features comparing food prices in
Israel and abroad. People realized that, while salaries in Israel are about half those in America, prices of consumer goods
and services are about double. Exorbitant profits, fees, and taxes make even the cheapest imported automobiles cost
between $35,000 and $40,000, and a gallon of gas costs almost $10. A small apartment can cost the average Israeli worker
12 years in annual salary. Water and electricity costs are inordinately high, and the poorly-run state educational system
leads many families to spend a mint on private tuition.
Izhak Alrov, a member of the ultra-orthodox community of Bnei Brak and a cantor by avocation, was outraged by what he
experienced trying to survive on a modest salary. In June, the 25-year-old opened a Facebook page and called for a
consumer boycott of one staple — cottage cheese. The response was electrifying. Over 100,000 long-suffering consumers
soon joined the boycott. Stores reported a steep decline in cottage-cheese sales.
At first, Israel's two huge food conglomerates, Tnuva (headed by Zahavit Cohen) and Strauss (chaired by Ofra Strauss),
blamed cottage cheese's high price on rising production costs beyond their control. But relentless reporting — especially
by the Marker, a pro-market business publication — revealed that the consumer was being fleeced at each stage of
production, from the high-prices charged by milk-producing cooperatives and the conglomerates' own dairies, to retail
chains that divvy up market share to curb competition and inflate prices. The boycott forced the cartel to cut prices.
Mr. Netanyahu has done his best to enhance competition, sharply cutting personal and corporate taxes. But a high
proportion of taxes is still levied as regressive indirect taxes (Israel's value-added tax, for example, is 16%) which fall
heavily on the poor.
At the same time, bureaucracy and costly regulations stymie entrepreneurship and inhibit economic growth. Government
owns 93% of all land in Israel and the inflated prices it charges, plus its maze of regulations and codes, raise construction
costs to prohibitive levels.
Misallocation of credit by banks and other financial institutions has been inhibiting growth as well. Despite then-Finance
Minister Netanyahu's financial-market reforms that broke Israel's bank duopoly in 2005, a tiny fraction of the population
still uses a third of all credit, which they leverage into highly risky investments, mostly in foreign real estate. Small and
medium-size businesses, the most productive enterprises in the economy, are credit-starved, as are the outlying areas of
the Galilee and the Negev.
The cottage-cheese rebellion is transcending its immediate cause, the high cost of food. It is spreading to other goods
and services, especially housing, and it has given voice to a feeling of economic helplessness. Not surprisingly, radical
elements are trying to exploit legitimate grievances to unseat Mr. Netanyahu, who is trying to overcome oligarchs' and
bureaucrats' stiff resistance to reform. But the rebellion may yet bring the right kind of change to Israeli society — truly
competitive markets and a more accountable political class.
LINKS TO RELATED TOPICS:
Israel, Arabs, & the Islamic Middle East -- The Israeli-Arab Conflict;
Israeli Politics, Government, & Public Policy -- Public Issues & Controversies;
The State of Israel in War & Peace -- Israel's Role in International Relations;
Israeli Military Defense & National Security -- The Israeli Economy
The Middle East -- Arabs, Arab States, & Their Regional Neighbors
American Foreign Policy -- The Middle East
Islamism & Jihadism -- Radical Islam & Islamic Terrorism
Page Three
Page Two
Page One
International Politics & World Disorder:
War, Peace, & Geopolitics in the Real World:
Foreign Affairs & U.S. National Security
Page Two
Page One
Islamist Terrorist Attacks on the U.S.A.
Osama bin Laden & the Islamist Declaration of War
Against the U.S.A. & Western Civilization
Islamist International Terrorism &
U.S. Intelligence Agencies
U.S. National Security Strategy
Daniel Doron, an Israeli publicist and political activist, is a fellow of the Middle East Forum and the Founder and Director
of the Israel Center for Social and Economic Progress (ICSEP), a think tank located near Jerusalem. In his capacity as
ICSEP Founder and Director, Doron has recommended to the Israeli government changes in its economic policy, policy
changes designed to increase the competiveness of the Israeli economy, to move the economy away from monopoly,
statism, and socialism -- and toward the features of a free-market, competitive capitalist economic system. Some of these
policy recommendations have been adopted and successfully implemented.
Doron's articles and op-eds on the advantages of free-market economics have appeared in the Wall Street Journal,
the Christian Science Monitor, the Financial Times of London, the Weekly Standard, National
Review, and the Jerusalem Post, and other periodicals in the U.S.A., Israel, and the United Kingdom.
The foregoing article by Daniel Doron was originally published in the Wall Street Journal, August 3, 2011, and
can be found on the Internet website maintained by the Middle East Forum, a foreign policy think tank which seeks to
define and promote American interests in the Middle East, defining U.S. interests to include fighting radical Islam,
working for Palestinian Arab acceptance of the State of Israel, improving the management of U.S. efforts to promote
constitutional democracy in the Middle East, reducing America's energy dependence on the Middle East, more robustly
asserting U.S. interests vis-à-vis Saudi Arabia, and countering the Iranian threat.
(URL: http://www.meforum.org/2998/israel-cottage- cheese-rebellion)
Republished with Permission of the Middle East Forum
Reprinted from the Middle East Forum News
mefnews@meforum.org (MEF NEWS)
August 3, 2011
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THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
An Online Journal of Political Commentary & Analysis
Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
Conservative & Free-Market Analysis of Government, Politics & Public Policy, Covering Political, Legal, Constitutional, Economic,
Cultural, Military, International, Strategic, & Geopolitical Issues
Conservative Government Ensures a Nation's Strength, Progress, & Prosperity