Avi Aharon

גיסתי מכרה זה עתה את המטבח ה-100 שלה,
ופוצחת במבצע סוף שנה.

The mission of the education-inspiring Israeli is threefold: forgetting everything he was taught in the government mandatory education system, pay for the tuition on top of the taxes paid for funding – among other things – a huge government system and put whatever left on the not too many private schools and universities available in Israel.
The common objection of the government mandated education system is that the government is not permitted to tell someone how to educate their kids, nor to take their money for this purpose (I apologize for putting ‘government’ and “purpose’ in the same sentence).
This objection is thorough and complete. It calls not for the privatization of the government education system, but for its abolition.
Privatization won’t benefit me. I don’t want to be handed with the school that I am currently paying for. I don’t want to be forced to make education my business, as I would like to put my efforts on my kid, not on yours.
Now, I know that not all Israeli schools are equally bad. One of the ways to ensure proper education for your kids is to move to a rural town that is already known for its good schools. Rural towns are relatively small, so the parents can easily get a hold on what is going on in schools. I have to say that I am very pleased with the kindergarten Amir attends to. Nevertheless, I was forced to send him there and I wish this was not the case.
The costs of education, we are told, are the same with private education as well as the government-owned (NIS800-1000 for half-day, NIS2000 and up for a full day). The budget of the ministry of education is NIS-Billion-25, which is divided onto 2.5 million kids, hence NIS10K per kid per years. This money is taken from my income tax, on top of the direct payment made to the kindergarten. Hence, I pay twice the cost for my kid’s tuition.
The objectivist abolition of government education system will reduce my costs by half. I don’t even mention the years that I did pay taxes but had no kids.
The main problem with government-mandated education is not the money I spend, though. The bigger problem is that the system itself is of a very low quality. It teaches very little and educate for brutality and violent behavior. The schools are too big, with too little personnel. The studies are dull and the kids, being kids, are turning the boredom into playful, however purposeless behavior. The school finds itself responding to insubordination and violence. In the past decades – at least ever since I went to school – the education system has monotonously deteriorated.
If you want your kid to be able to study computer science, you have to teach him all the math he needs by yourself. This is an easy task, though; as it is not that difficult to surpass the math level being taught at school.
So your kid might evade the violence and purposeless of school life. What about the others? What about the other kids that don’t have parents such as yourself?
The answer, I’m afraid, is that they are doomed. The are doomed to violent, purposeless life. These are the kids that took a rifle and shot at a school bus in Rosh Haayin earlier this year (and killed two kids). These are the thousands of kids that are growing to be adults that don’t make a living without the help of the state. They are doomed to live on welfare and breed the next generation of voters that favor big government. Ooops, maybe I am onto something here.
The government education system has to be abolished altogether. This system’s budget has to return to the taxpayer. Let us chose how to educate our kids and fund this education on our own.

The 21st century can be the Israeli century.
They say that Israel is going places.
Indeed, there are opportunities all over. It turns that the last failing wars Israel waged (Lebanon 2006, Gaza 2008) had done more harm to its enemies than to Israel itself; The global economic crisis lasts for over a year now; Europe is getting older and is expected to lose influence; Russia is virtually disappearing. All of these cases bring opportunities to the entire free world.
For Israel, it means an opportunity to get rid of the Palestinian Authority and fix a 17 years old problem; An opportunity to get rid of Hezbollah and fix a 28 years old problem; How about getting rid of Iran? This will bring the Middle East to where it was in 1916 (when France and Britain dissected the soon-to-fall Ottoman Empire and invented Muslim nationalism).
Israel has an opportunity to enjoy a chance of a life time and actually become a superpower. Not just military (although an Arab-less Middle East is a tempting option). Let’s take a look at a non-military example: the world is looking for a new stable currency. It’s hard to believe that there is a currency that can replace the Dollar. However, how about replacing the Euro? A decade from today, aging Europe will be run by Muslims. How long will this hold? How about providing the world with a solid currency that beats the Dollar for over a decade (for the Israeli reader: I purposely don’t take into account the 1990s and Commissioner Frankel).
An Arab-free Middle East; a currency that is second only to the Dollar.
It can’t be too bad.
But, who is this state of Israel that will soon be blessed with all that?
In the next articles I’m going to show that Israel has a very long way to walk before it deserve to pick such a prize. The problem of Israel is threefold:

• Compulsory military service that caused Israel to lose each and every war in the past four decades
• Enormous tax burden that drives Israeli talent and money out
• Compulsory educational system that generates and increasingly violent and dumb population

Now, freedom to the individual goes well with prosperity, purpose, happiness and success. It is not that the Israelis doesn’t know that. It’s that they chose otherwise and don’t know how to revert to the right values.
If Israel desires to make the 21st century the Israeli century, it has a long way to walk and it’s about time to make the first step.

In the next articles:

1. How to eliminate the military service?
2. How to eliminate government-owned education?
3. How to get rid of taxes?
4. Other Objectivist values to keep in mind

נבון קצב, מדינאי בהתהוות, מצא אותי בפייסבוק ושלח אותי לקרוא את הדף שלו. בדף יש תוכן ליכודניקי טיפוסי… שהיה רלוונטי לפני שלושים שנה. כל מיני התבכיינויות על איך שהאו”ם מתנהג כלפינו. לא משהו שלא קראתי בעשרות מקומות אחרים.
אני מניח שנבון קצב הוא אדם טוב וראוי, חכם ושאפתן, תכליתי ומסור, שאין סיבה שלא יצמח לתוך המדינאות הישראלית ויגיע רחוק מהממוצע.
רק שאם הוא רוצה שאצליח להבחין בינו לבין ילדי-נתניהו האחרים, שלא לומר אלה שהולכים להנהיג את קדימה אחרי פרישתם הקרובה של ליבני ומופז, כדאי שיפתח ויביע דעה בנושאים יותר חשובים. הייתי למשל רוצה לשמוע מה יש לנבון קצב לומר בנושאים הבאים:
מיסים – זו הבעיה מספר אחת של מדינת ישראל. נתניהו אמר לפני הבחירות שיוריד מיסים. הוא לא. הוא אפילו העלה את מע”מ וייקר את המים. האם יש לנבון קצב דעה עצמאית בעניין?
מים – מה נבון קצב מציע לעשות כדי לפתור במהירות ובזול את בעיית המים שיצרה הממשלה?
נדל”ן – האם יש לנבון קצב תכנית מקורית לפתרון מהיר של המחסור האדיר בדיור במדינת ישראל?
אלה הבעיות שדרוש להן פתרון דחוף. התעסקות בכל דבר אחר היא גם בזבוז זמן (בזבוז זמנו של משלם המיסים, בעיקר) וגם משהו שעשרות פוליטיקאים אחרים ממילא עושים.

“A year from today, there will be no Hamas”.
How’s that for a prediction?
Well, in October 2000 I predicted that within a year, there will be no PLA.
As we all know, I was wrong.

Has anything changed in the past 9 years? During these 9 years Israel has been fighting a war it could have won in a month or two; these were 9 years of a war that got Israel to the worst recession in experienced in 4 decades (the last time Israelis just didn’t buy any apartments was in the 1965 recession).
Hamas generously provides a casus beli. That’s true. It’s always a good thing to have your enemy doing some of your job. The new Silkworm it possesses can reach Tel Aviv. With a little luck, a single missile can send the entire Gush Dan area to shelter, wiping out several business days just like that. Don’t mention the casualties, of course. Several dozens of them, for sure.

So Israel has each and every right to get rid of Hamas today. Wipe it completely out from the map. But does Israel have he capability of doing so?
In October 2000, Israel failed across the entire theatre. The IDF had lost one battle after the other. It was helpless against the PLA.
Contrary to the IDF, the Israeli police has won the battle of the galilee (in which Palestinian Israeli citizen blocked several highways in the north part of Israel) but lost in court. Lost in an Israeli court, that is. Yeap, the Police general who ordered to open fire on these Palestinians, had 13 of them killed and won the battle within a day, was kicked out of the police because he shot Israeli citizens. Clearly, no one wants to win a battle only to find himself in court. This – among other reasons – is why Israel is losing the war so far: Israel has chosen to lose.
What about other reasons for the almost-decade long lose?
Israel has tried to engage the PLA (including Hamas) several times. In operation Defense Shield (April 2002) its army conducted five battles, failing in one (Jenin). The low-quality IDF infantry has lost 13 soldiers just like that. The Israeli public has shown that it won’t stand so many loses, and the operation was halted. A week later, an invasion to Gaza was cancelled for this very reason: the IDF feared of having more casualties.
The reality of war is that fear of casualties only brings more of them, so in 2006 Israeli suffered some 200 of them. The IDF infantry was even worse than it was in 2002 (who says it progresses nowhere…), proving that Israel is incapable of occupying land.

Between 2006 and 2008 Israel has made a bold move. It didn’t bother to fix its Infantry. The land moves in operation Cast Lead were as poor as they were two years before: no gain of land, no advancement, and – probably most importantly – no gain of confidence among the soldiers.
However, Israel has improved its air capabilities. Hamas is following Hezbollah and Fatah in fighting an asymmetric war, and Israel has retaliate in an asymmetry of its own: I suspect that the IDF land forces were only a mask. Sure, they were fully mobilized, burning lots of diesel fuel and shooting lots and lots of projectiles. This was a cover for the introduction of the new air capabilities. In 4 minutes, over 100 plains (mostly unmanned? I believe so) got some 200 Hamas combatants killed.
Nice, isn’t it?
A basic axiom in the symmetric warfare is that in order to gain land you must have land forces. Israel seems to be breaking this axiom. It took Israel some 9 years to do so. The price is way too high for my taste. Nevertheless, I am convinced that the next war will be the Hamas last war.
I am thankful for Hamas for acquiring the Silkworm missile.