Joanne:

Hang in there, and soak in the novelty of lawful and protected concerted activity by public sector workers. I am at a teamster conference this week in the States, and the attendees would undoubtedly marvel at the power that the public sector workers are legally exerting over there.

I hope for your sake and for the sake of the workers and their families that the strike is settled and settled quickly. And, hopefully, when the dust settles, the impact of the strike will, as you say it must, provide even more incentive for rational parties to come together and negotiate a lasting Middle East peace.

Solidarity forever.

Bruce

contrast this with the recent bus workers strike in Tehran. The strike was broken up by Iranian Hezbollah thugs with knives and clubs and the leaders arrested. Israeli public workers should be very grateful for the rights they are free to exercise. Not many workers in the Middle East are so fortunate.

Don Key,

So, a worker's strike proves that Israel is a democratic light unto the world.

No.  What Ms. Mort wrote was,

In Israel, there is a legal system that includes special labor courts and the labor court here ruled that this is a legal strike and that the government must negotiate with the workers. That is something for which US unions would yearn.

When my conservative friends "catch" me saying something positive about the Clinton era, they often accuse me of holding President Clinton up as a "saint," who can "do no wrong," and other such hyperbolic strawmen that are more convenient for them to dismiss than a simple catalogue of facts.

It should strike any reasonable observer as at least somewhat odd that progressives would argue the same way.

Don:

Nowhere does Joanne write that Israel is "a democratic light unto the world". Joanne does point out, and rightfully so, that the strike is a public sector strike which would be unlawful in just about every jurisdiction in the United States.

Joanne is a regular contributer to TPM Cafe and she is also in Israel, where there is a nationwide public sector strike. Joanne is also someone who has spent much of her career in the American labor movement. I think it's certainly understandable that she would be inspired to post about the strike she is experiencing.

And for those of us who work in the labor movement in this country and/or who are union members, and for many "progressives" who read TPM Cafe and who still, in 2007, understand the importance of a strong and democratic labor movement, Joanne's post is both material and a darn good read. Joanne's additional observation that the strike should cause Israelis to understand the importance of obtaining an overall Middle East peace settlement is, perhaps overly optimistic, but hardly offensive. . . unless I'm missing something.

Bruce

Don Key,

Ms. Mort is basically implying that Israel is a progressive democracy as witnessed by its liberal labor system without even mentioning treatment of Palestinians. That strikes me as odd.

Maybe you should bother reading the whole piece before strutting around with chips on your shoulder.  Check it out...

Once the strike is settled, this fact should weigh even more heavily on the Israeli government to search for a negotiated settlement with the Palestinians--and with the Syrians--so that Israel can continue its quest for global integration and normalization.

Don Key,

You can say my reading is off or my criticism of her assertion is hyperbolic, in your opinion, but it isn't a straw man.

You are wrong.  Asserting that a labor strike "proves" a country to be "a light unto the world" when no one makes any such claim is the definition of a hyperbolic strawman, and in exactly the same way my conservative friends assert that any references to the positively effective policies of the Clinton era somehow "proves" that Clinton is some manner of untarnished saint.

to the reader who is extolling me to criticize Israel's occupation of the Palestinians, I suggest that you look at my earlier posts-the most recent before this one was written after I had several meetings in Ramallah.

I haven't read any posts by you in some time and I admit I was a little harsh in my comments. I think this just struck me the wrong way:

Moreover, if airport action takes hold, the very constituency that will still support this government--those affluent enough to leave the country for August vacation--will be furious at the government, not just at the workers.But, additionally, this shows something else--Israel's connectivity to the outside world. It is a peculiarity of Israeli labor arrangements that the public sector can shut down the borders, too.

This, when the military shuts down the borders in the OPT and builds new borders and "fences." It just seems wrong to complain about inconveniences and economic deprivations when the OPT are being cut off and hemmed in.

How does Histadrut approach Israel's guest worker policy?
???

Egypt has closed it's border with Gaza as well. Why are you only blaming Israel?

After completely trampling the deal they made with Fatah in Saudi Arabia nobody, and I mean NOBODY trusts Hamas inside or outside the region.

I'm not the one hissing here. I don't think you can praise Israel's labor system and democracy without even discussing discrimination against Palestinians in and out of Israel.I just made an off-the-cuff, three sentence comment saying I thought part of the post was tacky.  Everything else was just a reply to questions. Why are you even replying to this? You and Zionista just say I sound like a right wing nut (ouch!), so who is building straw men here?

Likewise those who hate Israel cannot admit that Israel gives labor power that the unions in the U.S. would die for.

Do you even read the bullshit you write? I only ask because you obviously do not read the comments that you mischaracterize. I responded to a post called Closed Borders that I think the areas closed to Palestinians, including labor, should be included in the discussion. You can argue that it's irrelevant, though I think that's foolish, but your ad hominem attacks are childish.

From the Guardian last week:

Although Israel withdrew its settlers from Gaza two years ago, it maintains control of the sea, the airspace and all the crossings for people and goods with Israel and with Egypt.

And, in the same article, this might be germane to our labor discussion:

At least 68,000 Palestinians have lost their jobs in the past month since Israel closed the crossings...

Around 85% of Gaza's private-sector employees are out of work, according to Nasser el-Helou, a prominent business leader. Thousands of factories have closed as imports and exports have halted.