Weekly Commentary: Summer social protest movement diverted attention from
the approaching Palestinian state tsunami

Dr. Aaron Lerner Date: 28 September 2011

The very last thing that the foreigners who bankrolled the social protest
movement here in Israel this summer anticipated was that it would somehow
help Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu.

The purpose of the exercise was, after all, to raise such a groundswell of
protest that the government would somehow fall. This with the anticipated
additional benefit that the public would “connect the dots” that “social
justice” could not possibly be achieved as long as the “occupation” and
“settlements” continued to exist.

But that’s not the way the summer of protest played out.

Instead of bringing the Netanyahu coalition government down, the social
protest movement actually helped Binyamin Netanyahu:

The Israeli media pulled all the stops to support the social protest
movement – this at the expense of the impending “Palestine State Tsunami”
that would have otherwise been the focus of the entire summer.

And no doubt much of the same foreign money that covered the tab for the
social protest movement would have financed a summer of protests,
conferences and various other media events designed to tell the world the
story that the Israeli “street” actually welcomes the UN declaration of a
Palestinian state.

A story that might have confused friends of Israel abroad as it was
exploited by others to justify a hardline against the official Israeli
position.

This phenomenon may be repeating itself again, with the Trajtenberg
Committee recommendations the focus of media attention rather than the
Palestinian story.

Thank you New Israel Fund?

Dr. Aaron Lerner, Director IMRA (Independent Media Review & Analysis)
(Mail POB 982 Kfar Sava)
Tel 972-9-7604719/Fax 972-3-7255730
INTERNET ADDRESS: imra@netvision.net.il
Website: http://www.imra.org.il