Note: I normally do not publish on weekends and holidays. This is a special post to update the Friday post.
As I suspected, there were not a million people. Just like the Million Man March in America, which only had 400,00. This march had between 400,000 and 450,000 Israelis. Which is equivalent to about 20 million Americans.
In Israel, there were around 300,000 in Tel Aviv, 50,000 in Jerusalem, with the rest of the marchers spread among Haifa, Afula, Karmiel, Eilat and some smaller cities. The equivalent cities in America would be New York, Washington DC, Long Beach (CA), Charlotte, Boston, and Myrtle Beach.
What did it mean? Prime Minister Netanyahu asserted that his government is committed to the changes demanded by the marchers. Words are easy- but his exact words to to act quickly “and maintain the correct balance between social sensitivity and responsible economics.” That to me was a platitude. But, he added…
“Only if we have an economy that does not slip, fall and collapse, as happened to several principal countries in Europe, only thus can we ease the cost-of-living and correct those distortions…We will do both: We will maintain the economy and we will correct what needs to be corrected.”
That is a little better.
The opposition leader, Tzipi Livni, responded that whether it was 450,000 or a million, this was a significant demonstration. She also said, “From here, either Israel will continue to deteriorate socially…We will desperately find ourselves with groups that do not communicate with one another, or Israel will change. And I believe Israel can change.”
Let’s see what happens over the next 12 months or so…
