Review: The Silver Platter – A guide to Israeli reality

How did Israel go from being a highly egalitarian society to an unequal one in 30 years? ‘Silver Platter’ is a powerful wake-up call to the Israeli public to fight those who are plundering the country. [For September screenings in Sydney, Melbourne and Perth, see here.]

The Silver Platter is a series of three fast-paced one-hour documentaries, mainly based on economic analysis, with each presented by a different passionate intellectual critic of Israeli society. Sounds dry? It’s not, mainly because of the technique of recording their arguments in plain language, presented to ordinary Israelis who’ve come to listen to them in public lectures.

The three presenters are experts in their respective fields of economics, journalism and history. They make the case that Israel’s greatest threat is from within – that the country’s social and economic policies and practices are doing it great harm.

Animation is inventively and humorously used to illustrate key ideas, statistics and trends, and to compare Israel’s performance with other countries on a range of economic indicators.

There are also punchy interviews with formerly powerful players, who often argue with the protagonist presenters.

All up, the series is an eye-opener on how Israel is run and managed. Spoiler warning: this is not the simplistic success story we’re used to hearing.

Episode 1 is about Israel’s most influential financial journalist, the energetic Guy Rolnik, founder of ‘The Marker’ magazine. Rolnik wants to change the world because ‘what else should a journalist do?’ A vociferous and critical campaigner, he’s attracted a plethora of lawsuits as his targets attempt to silence him. Clearly, his articles have had a huge effect on public discourse about the government’s economic policy. He travels the country giving pro bono lectures to warn the public about the dangers he sees.

So what’s his beef? In brief, Israel’s economic situation ‘sucks’. What used to be lauded as a wonder startup economy is in decline, according to Rolnik. In the last 10-20 years, average wages have eroded, rents have increased 50-70%, housing costs have skyrocketed and the prices of gas, car expenses and food have risen enormously.

Rolnik’s conclusion: ‘We’re not doing so well.’ Judging by ongoing mass social protests since 2011, a lot of people agree with him and want change.

The causes? To start with, market concentration means Israel has the most monopolies in the world. Just ten large organisations – banks and insurance companies – control almost all the public’s money. A small club of 10–20 capitalists control most of the credit in the economy, with vested interests controlling the public discourse, including the major media. Is he right? Well, after a 2012 government commission found that 19 families controlled 40% of the economy’s income, a Knesset bill against concentration passed unanimously. The program doesn’t say how effective the legislation has been.

With the help of entertaining animations, Rolnik explains the lack of competition in sectors like mobile phones and banks. He rails against the increasing power concentrated in the hands of the few, from the defence establishment to special interest groups that control pensions.

Then there’s corruption, amongst the highest in the western world, according to his statistics. He also graphically illustrates how the government financial regulators move on to lucrative jobs working for the tycoons they supposedly regulated. The conclusion is that there are too many informal cosy arrangements that are detrimental to the Israeli economy and society. None of this is good for democracy.

Episode 2 features the high-achieving, dynamic Professor Yaron Zelekha, now a college Dean of Business Administration. A financial wunderkind, Zelekha was economic advisor to Netanyahu at 26 and at 33, Accountant General, the gatekeeper of all public funds.

He starts with dire statistics about Israel. It ranks 66th in the world on an index of equality. 23.5% of the population is below the poverty line, and an even higher percentage of children live in poverty.

Zelekha says there are three main reasons usually given for Israel’s situation, but labels each of these a lie.

Lie 1: Israel is poor due to the security situation. But from 1975 to 2014 the country’s percentage of GDP devoted to security declined from 31% to 6.5%.

Lie 2: Israel is poor because it’s a small country of 8.2 million. But comparisons show the optimal range to generate growth is between 6 to 12 million people. Other ‘small’ countries are doing much better.

Lie 3: Israel is poor because of the Orthodox Jews and the Arabs. But employment amongst both those groups has actually increased. Poverty in 1998 was 60% lower than today. Conclusion? Work doesn’t necessarily deliver you from poverty in Israel today, and this is a violation of the social pact.

Zelekha says, “The fruits are supposed to be distributed fairly. Not equally, fairly.” So what went wrong? He identifies and discusses five generators of poverty – the taxation system, the lack of competition, the ‘gas resource robbery’ whereby the country’s natural resources were virtually given away to private interests, corruption and the cost of housing.

Israel ranks 37 on a global corruption scale and has dropped 20 places in thirteen years. When Zelekha was Accountant General, he pursued criminal investigations against then prime minister Ehud Olmert. After some time and maximum publicity, the state concluded that suspicions would be difficult to prove. The government then went after Zelekha. Ministers attacked him, he was campaigned against by the vested media and he eventually resigned from office, saying, “Once you go up against the powers, you pay the price”.

Yet the Minister who initiated proceedings to remove Zelekha was himself removed on suspicion of theft. Olmert was later indicted in Israel’s biggest corruption affair and sentenced to six years in prison.

The episode ends with What Have We Learned?, eight factors that paint a dark picture of Israel’s economic situation with obvious knock-on effects for its citizens.

Episode 3 in the series features the more quietly spoken, but nevertheless passionate Dani Gutwein, Professor of History of the Jewish People at Haifa University.

Titled ‘Raiders of the Welfare State’ this episode is a fascinating review of the Labor Party years in Israel and the subsequent dominance of Likud, starting with Menachem Begin in 1977. Using archival footage and interviews with power brokers of the time, Gutwein traces the changes from a welfare state dominated by the all-powerful Histradut organisation of trade unions to today’s neo-liberal capitalist state where only 25% of workers are union members.

Gutwein takes us through the ‘Destruction Phase’ of 1977-1984 when inflation rocketed from 42 to 444%. Interest rates went from 26 to 57% and withdrawal of subsidies caused food price hikes and social tension.

The program explores how the Labor/Likud Unity Government of 1984, facing Israel’s potential bankruptcy, instituted rapid privatisation, the basis of today’s economy.

Finally, he critiques the current era, claiming there’s been a collapse of the middle class since Netanyahu determined to ‘reduce, streamline and downsize the public sector’. Statistics show how public investment in hospitals and education have been dramatically reduced. Gutwein reserves special criticism for the Left for going along with the neo-liberal capitalist philosophy. “Where is the Left? Collaborating”.

He focuses on the settlements and their expansion from 6,000 settlers in 1977 to 400,000 in 2015. Despite the protestations of settlement supporters interviewed, Gutwein maintains that most people have moved beyond the Green Line because they were offered conditions they would never dream of in the rest of the country, rather than moving for purely ideological reasons. He makes the point that, once committed to live there, people consequently become right wing supporters and so the right continues to bolster its base at the expense of the broader society in Israel, especially the underclasses.

Protesting that welfare allocations to people in the settlements are far in excess of those elsewhere, he maintains the state allocates six times the amount for the education of a child in, for example, the Mt Hebron settlements area than in Dimona.

Gutwein’s gloomy conclusion is that if Israel’s economic policy continues, the gap between rich and poor will crush and destroy the society from the inside. So what is to be done? In his view, Israel’s economic policies must change focus to the lower classes because what lifts them up will develop everyone.

Watching all three episodes of The Silver Platter is rather an onslaught, due to the amount of information and the pace of delivery. The commitment and messages of these three driven campaigners are inspiring and enlightening, though not uplifting. The message is that Israel must reform in order to become a fairer, more equitable and democratic society.

And see:

Did the Cottage Cheese protesters get what they wanted? June 25, 2016

Israel is one of the most unequal nations in the OECD. Here’s why. February 9, 2016

Opposing budget opacity, shady deals, corruption January 12, 2016

This The Jewish Independent article may be republished if acknowledged thus: ‘This article first appeared on www.thejewishindependent.com.au and is reprinted with permission.’