Hearing the heated debates within Israeli society, you often wonder whether people really believe the absurd arguments they make, or whether these are demagogic statements for propaganda purposes only.
For example, in the face of growing criticism of judicial activism and the broad freedom that judges have taken to thwart Knesset decisions time and again, the claim is made that returning power to the Knesset is an 'injury to democracy.'.
And you ask yourself: Doesn't democracy mean rule by the people, through their elected representatives? Doesn't common sense lead to the opposite conclusion, that taking authority away from the people's elected representatives and handing it over to a group of judges who were not elected democratically - that is the harm to democracy!
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It is true that those who spread these slogans do not realize their absurdity, or they know full well that their statements turn darkness into light and light into darkness, but they continue to proclaim it, according to the well-known rule that a lie repeated over and over again is eventually accepted.
Scandal or blessing?
However, it seems that bubbles are being created here in which people stew in their own juices, until they completely disconnect from objective truth and see reality in the colors of their agenda. This phenomenon is expressed precisely in seemingly casual sentences.
Here, last week, a 'storm' developed following the decision to approve the entry of seventeen thousand yeshiva students, students, and participants in the 'Masa' and 'Nael' projects. An onslaught immediately arose, as if bringing young people to the Holy Land was a crime and not an important national mission, for which every Jew is supposed to bless.
All the clarifications that permits are given to a limited extent, to unique institutions, and that all students will enter isolation as required, until there is no fear of infection, were of no use. The organized chorus ignored the facts and repeatedly portrayed the decision as an outrage.
And you can't understand why.
Then a major media outlet comes along and provides the reasoning behind why this decision is fundamentally wrong – because it brings money into the educational institutions from abroad. Yeshiva students pay high tuition, and this money goes into the yeshiva budget.
''Positive point''
Wait, what's wrong? And does this money come at someone's expense? Aren't we talking about dollars that enter the state, and help the yeshivas to exist without asking the state to increase its share of their budgets! Where's the sin?! But as mentioned, dry facts have no role here. What matters is the melody and the smacking of the lips.
Then comes the concluding paragraph, which clearly illustrates the bubble in which that media system is in: "But there is also a positive point to this whole event: Each such student spends thousands of shekels a month in addition to tuition, and thus constitutes a kind of small growth engine, and any foreign money that enters the country during this difficult economic period is a blessing for local businesses.".
Do you understand? The fact that these students pay tuition and bring money into the country from abroad is negative. The very arrival of the young people to the country, and the chance that as a result they and their families may rise – is also negative.
There is only one small 'positive point' – the money these students leave in local stores and businesses...
