…Well, it’s been pretty quiet in Israel. August is normally quiet in the world of politics. Even politics goes on vacation in August.

We’ve had these semi-Woodstock encampments around the country protesting the cost-of-living and the disappearance of a middle class. Israel has one of the worst gaps in the liberal democracies of the West. There are people with lots of money opposite people who “can’t finish the month,” as the expression here goes around here, with few people in between.

The spokesmen and spokeswomen of these tent encampments are hard core Leftists and anti-Bibi-ites for reasons having nothing to do with his stewardship of the economy.

They have no ideas, only demands. And what they demand is the welfare culture of the kibbutz. They want free everything. Perfect equality between members of the community in terms of wealth. It is a communist ideal of equality.

Trouble is, of course, while some kibbutzim worked better than others, in the end the economic theory of their kind of collectivist socialism does not work. Contrary to a fantasy that resonates with the word socialism, in which everyone wants the best for society, a society of sociable people, it is capitalism that provides the greatest good for the greatest number. It is not the squelching of competition but fostering it. Capitalism is the companion of political freedom, for capitalism posits freedom of the marketplace.

So these Leftists leading this tent protest have been acting like such fools they are an embarrassment to the Jewish people…