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05/13/2008: "Growing gap between rich and poor in Israel - while ethnicity becomes less important"

The Sephardi-Ashkenazi fissure is blurring, a prey to intermarriage, social mobility, and to the distance in time from countries of origin and their culture. Young Israelis do not carry their "ethnicity" in the forefront of their consciousness. Their Israeliness, however defined, is steadily taking precedence.

The Russians - and there have been more than a million migrants in the past 20 years from the former Soviet Union - are on the make, with the classic profile of the Jewish migrant: determined, hard-working and studious. There are enough of them to sustain a flourishing culture - attracting a new respect from other Israelis.

Such confident multiculturalism helps explain an easing in the perennial Orthodox-secular strains in Israeli society. The downside is the widening gap between the haves and the have-nots. Bibi had hacked away at the welfare state with a vigour that made Thatcherites pale. Many economists say he saved the country. But a million or more poor Israelis have yet to feel the promised trickle-down effect, while the super-rich soar into the stratosphere. Silver-tongued Bibi may bamboozle with a bridge of words. But the chasm between rich and poor yawns dark and menacing.

[ Interesting how national and ethnic origins (as long as they are all Jewish) are becoming less important in Israel. ]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/may/13/israelandthepalestinians