This week, electricity prices in Israel rose by 8.3, bringing the annual increase to over 22%. The official reason behind the increase, as explained by officials in charge, was the rise in the price of coal worldwide.

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But you see, in the past two years, Israel has invested greatly in switching from coal to natural gas. The project was supposed to have been completed by 2025, but naturally kept being delayed, and has barely progressed.

In case you didn't know yet, Israel is a gas powerhouse. In recent years, the major gas reservoirs that it had discovered were used to export natural gas, which, in the past year, in particular – with the outbreak of the Ukraine war – has become as expensive as coal.

We have been told time and again that the gas reservoir would lead to significant decreases in electricity prices because Israel – as part of contracts with companies that developed the reservoirs – was supposed to become the main customer and procure gas at relatively cheap prices.

And even with the global inflation, Israel should have become a gas oasis, with gas and solar energy use not only leading to decreased costs but also increased green energy and decreased coal use. But that is not the case.
One of Israel's most celebrated politicians is outgoing Energy Minister Karine Elharrar, who – despite the price spikes – has not been asked a single time what she has busied herself with in the past two years in office.

The 22% increase in electricity prices – nothing short of a fiasco – is Elharrar's direct responsibility, and yet there is complete silence on the matter. Perhaps because Elharrar is the darling of the Israeli media, which means she is free to do as she pleases.

Turns out, Elharrar – and the government of change at large – have failed when it comes to the economic aspect, and we will continue to pay the price for their neglect and mistakes in the months to come. Increases in costs, such as public transportation, food, housing and property tax will impact us all.

Will Elharrar be held responsible? Unlikely, as politicians are rarely held accountable in Israel. Meanwhile, well-to-do Israelis will do just fine in the winter, while lower-income households will struggle to pay for the most basic utility there is. May we all stay warm this winter.

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The Left loves to accuse Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of political paralysis, but it is unwilling to reflect on its own actions and realize how its leaders are abandoning all morals and values to achieve their goal.

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What we are witnessing is one of the most delusional political approaches in our history, for the Left is convinced that the moment Netanyahu is out, all Israel's problems will be solved.

There will be no more poverty, no more inequality, the periphery will receive bountiful resources and investments, gaps in the health care system will disappear, as will racism and the exclusion of Israeli Arabs. And the cherry on top, the justice system will become more just and fair in an instant.

This is the Left's view, in short. It is this belief that allows its leaders to accept Yamina head Naftali Bennett as prime minister without skipping a beat. In a single day, the person who came up with the "Singapore Plan" became a coveted ally, and the historic partnership between religious Zionist and left-wing parties is beginning to reemerge.

But has anything really changed? If you strip class interests down to their essence and remove the ideological aspects, those interests are largely similar.

Behind a vast portion of the "Anyone but Bibi" movement lies a class alliance, an echo of the time when the interests of the socialist Left to a large degree overlapped those of the Mizrahi movement. Both spoke of such values as socialism and a welfare state.

In contrast, the present religious Zionism values the free market and capitalism more than building settlements. One look at the Singapore Plan makes it clear.

It is no wonder that Bennett's "alliance of brothers" was formed, first and foremost, with Yesh Atid leader Yair Lapid, a representative of the upper-middle class, an established political leader from the center of the country. The Left is even willing to give up the appearance of a social-democratic welfare state.

How did hatred towards Netanyahu become the glue that keeps such opposing ideologies together? Simple. Behind that hatred lies also, or perhaps primarily, disgust towards his supporters. This is class alienation, which is also not devoid of an ethnic aspect.

Looking at the entire spectrum of the anti-Netanyahu bloc, one struggles to find a true leftist, one that represents first and foremost the poor, the working class, and the periphery.

No leadership is brave enough to abandon class connections in favor of a leftist economic approach that would free Israel from its marginalizing and racist politics. From Meretz to Yamina, it is the class interest that overrides ideology.

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We are in the midst of one of the most vicious election campaigns we've seen in recent years. As one of my dearest friends, an intellectual liberal type from Tel Aviv, recently told me, the coronavirus has changed the game. There is no more solidarity, no more patience. For many long years we accepted "you," and that's it, we now understand we can't live this way. The future won't be like the past. This is a new Israel, he added. We won't give in anymore, the age of Haredi plunderage of the public coffer is over, the status quo is over. The fat lady has sung.

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These harsh words aptly encapsulate this election campaign. Many political pundits are still in the "Yes-Bibi-No-Bibi" frame of mind, while the political system has long since moved on. It is focused on one thing only: Mainstream Israeli society against the Haredi public; the enlightened secular public against one million "black hat" Israelis.

In a coordinated attack under the guise of the pandemic, the media, in close conjunction with vested politicians, are mercilessly destroying the progress we have seen over the past decade toward solidarity and changes, the fruits of which would have benefited all of us in the coming years.

To be sure, the pandemic, similar to other historic pandemics, is releasing all the demons from their bottles. The hatred, blame and incitement, as in previous pandemics, are of electoral value. The flames of hatred can be fanned, in this case through televised loops of Haredim accompanied by the complimentary slew of commentary and articles – when often times the subject doesn't really matter as long as the visual effect resonates – a large funeral where all one sees is a giant black mass of humanity, bereft of any individualism; just a horde, clad in black. A horde described by Avigdor Lieberman as parasites – a horde of black parasites. This is how we are being acclimatized, on a daily basis, to perceiving this public, as one faceless mass, for which our hatred grows stronger with each passing article and exposé.

But the reality of the coronavirus is different. There have been demonstrations and riots in every country, sometimes more and sometimes less. The majority of the Haredi public observes the letter of the safety guidelines.

On Saturday evening, following a weekend of large Purim parties across the country, the main news channels chose to run a scoop, an investigation, an exposé – "The Ben-Gurion Airport Fix" – as the main story. It was quite the storm. We saw Yair Lapid granting a somber interview on the matter: "Tens of thousands of good Israelis are stuck abroad." He is a little more sophisticated and refined than Lieberman at signaling who is good and who is bad. The goal, however, is the same, along with the results.

Ultimately, this election campaign has already produced one winner: The auto-Israeli anti-Semitism is sometimes more vitriolic than the original brand, and is capable of scoring political points when needed to convince us that we live in a divided country, split to the point of ruin. The status quo is over – until the votes are counted.

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If the Israeli media would stop acting in its own interests by treating certain candidates with kid gloves, the demise of the old-guard Israeli Left would be a far greater story. This political camp, which for decades wielded power and then put up a protracted political fight from the benches of the opposition, is no more. 

This isn't really talked about, because it's an uncomfortable topic. There are no emergency conferences and panicked symposiums. Amir Peretz intends to bequeath the remnants of the Labor party, if he is allowed, to whoever is prepared to lend the party to the office of president. The recycled list of "hot names" stretches from Ehud Barak to Stav Shafir. Even the name Tzipi Livni is being regurgitated.

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In right-wing bastions in the periphery, voting numbers are dwindling from election to election, but those who do vote give their support to the Likud. In the midst of an economic and health crisis, the Left can be seen at junctions and on bridges across the country, waving banners championing an ideology reduced to one word: "Go." And after Benjamin Netanyahu goes?

The Left never really worked on presenting an alternative. Quite the opposite, anyone who has tried promoting a new, more relevant, more realistic agenda has been silenced. Why? Because now everyone is being asked to descend on Balfour Street in Jerusalem, where the prime minister's official residence is located. First Netanyahu must "go," and only then ideology can be discussed.

Anyone from the Left who has dared criticize the Balfour protests as a detached, elitist whim; anyone who has warned that protesting to safeguard the courts strikes a bitter chord with those being trampled by those very courts; anyone who said we must connect the periphery to the center because those people must be included in the national discussion -- on the economy, the justice system, and education -- has been ostracized and banished. I've personally been informed I am "not left." More than once.

Personally, I don't hand out licenses to other left-wingers. I do believe that the way to fix inequality is through socialism. I believe that in a multi-cultural society such as ours, where economic gaps are too strongly correlated to ethnic backgrounds, we must help those who have been left behind. I know that every child in Israel is entitled to nutritional security and quality education, even if he or she live in an unrecognized village in the Negev. And I am prepared to fight against the country's caste system. What do any of these issues have to do with the protests on Balfour Street?

Good for you, you appropriated the Left's agenda. But the Balfour operation was a success and the patient died. Support for Netanyahu is decreasing, but the Right is getting stronger. The Left is coming into this election empty handed, debating whether to be a fourth or fifth fiddle in the next symphony conducted by Netanyahu, or Gideon Sa'ar, or Naftali Bennett. The Left is dying. Send the flowers to Balfour Street.

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Hanegbi's sentiment is part of a general mode of conduct reflecting a certain detachment from the people: from the discussion about the prime minister's tax returns to the Finance Ministry's insistence not to provide an economic safety net for the many people harmed by the pandemic. More so, however, Hanegbi's sentiment is a symptom of something deeper, which right-wing governments have been blind to for decades.

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To be sure, Likud rule has given Israelis of Sephardic descent and who live in the periphery the opportunity to truly partake in the political process and system. It has also created and strengthened the Sephardic middle class and opened new avenues for personal advancement and socio-economic horizons to groups that until 1977 were excluded from the story. The right celebrates its achievements, but the struggle isn't over: The complex issues of distributive justice and resource allotment, mainly in terms of the periphery, are not being addressed and many people are being left behind. And yes, unequivocally, the vast majority of voters in the developmental towns and neighborhoods – in Israel's geographic and social periphery – vote right and support Benjamin Netanyahu. However, a deeper analysis of the voting figures illuminates a picture that isn't so cut and dry; a picture that reflects complex attitudes toward the Likud in the deeper periphery.

Based on a rough estimate, some 2.3 million eligible voters are Sephardic Israelis from the periphery, residents of developmental towns and neighborhoods, and the large-city slums. Voter turnout in these areas is low and is dwindling from election to election. In the last election, voter turnout in these "right-wing strongholds" reached record lows of 50% on average. This figure is lower in comparison to other sectors that usually don't participate in the election process, for example, the Arab sector.

Yes, the other 50% gave their vote to the right, mostly to the Likud. And yes, just a minuscule minority of these votes go to left-wing parties, which have failed to propose relevant alternatives. But the fact is that a great many people have simply stopped voting.

The despair and understanding that Likud doesn't offer solutions to their harsh daily problems compel people not to vote – a type of growing protest movement. If in 2006 900,000 people eschewed their democratic right to vote, in 2020 that number stood at 1.3 million.

This protest stems from a lack of hope; despair over an unforgiving bureaucratic system, and despair over a static situation that shows no signs of changing, not before or during the coronavirus pandemic. And where is the Likud? It throws around promises of big changes, but for years now, essentially, it has been absent from the periphery and poor neighborhoods. It, too, has moved on up, right into the new luxury high-rises in areas such as west Rishon Lezion.

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What hasn't been said about this government? A corrupt, bloated, sullied, detached government – a government that will topple the rule of law. What do I see? I see a government of the "Second Israel", as my friend Dr. Avishai Ben Haim has defined it. "The divide between the Israeli public and its government has never been greater," MK Merav Michaeli tweeted. The opposite is true. There has never been a government that is closer to the public.

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If there is one change that I would like to see to the Israeli system of government it would be to have regional representation. Why? Because then we would have a Knesset – and by extension, a government – that would fully embody the complex range of human diversity and the many and varied needs of Israel's citizens. The needs and interests of residents of Dimona or Sderot in the south are not the same as the residents of the well-to-do cities of Ramat Hasharon or Herzliya Pituach. The needs are the difference – and so too is their level of representation. That was the case, at least, until the formation of this government.

The current government includes the former mayor of the development town Yeruham and the head of his education department – Michael Biton and Hili Tropper - as ministers of important and central functions. This isn't merely symbolic. This is significant and important because these two cannot forget – even momentarily – where they came from. And I know with all my heart that they will never let go of that fact for a second, and will constantly look out for the public whose daily lives are so interwoven with their own.

This is a government with two representatives from the Ethiopian Jewish community – Pnina Tamano-Shata and Gadi Yevarkan. Don't talk to us about "detachment", because it's clear to anyone who knows these two that they are here to work for the people who sent them. Tamano-Shata will work tirelessly to bring the remaining Ethiopian Jews to Israel, and as deputy public security minister, Yevarkan will not rest until he flattens the curve of arrests of the community's youths.

True, perhaps the government is "overstuffed" with ministers, and some areas of responsibility were put together rather crudely. But perhaps this is the only way to ensure that so many issues that up until yesterday sat in the Prime Minister's Office, or under ministers who were overloaded, will finally get a "project manager" in the form of a minister whose resources, prestige and energy are entirely devoted to making progress.

The grotesque responses to the proposed makeup of the unity government between the First and Second Israel hit new heights of racism. The comments leveled at Dudi Amsalem or Orly Levy-Abekasis broke all the usual norms of critical discourse. But this bout of revulsion is nothing more than a reaction – a response caused by the fear of the First Israel devotees that the areas of influence that they still have are being "pinched" by the representatives of Second Israel. And so political success stories which a few years ago were only imaginable, warped into objects of ridicule and contempt. The limits of tolerance and pluralism have never been clearer. But the government's critics are right to be scared. Here – we have stolen their country and now there's a chance the priorities will change.

And now the ministers of Second Israel must reach out to Third Israel: in the next round of improvements, be sure to appoint an Arab minister.

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