Free Republic

TEL AVIV –The Democrat strategist identified as an architect of the social protests currently rocking Israel previously ran the campaign of Bolivia's former president, who was ushered into office amid escalating social protests in that country.After Gonzalo Sánchez de Lozada took power in Bolivia in 1985, he quickly implemented an economic "shock therapy" crafted by Jeffrey Sachs, a Columbia University professor who sits on the board of an organization literally seeking to reorganize the entire global economic system. That group is the Institute for New Economic Thinking, or INET.Philanthropist George Soros is INET's founding sponsor, with the billionaire having provided...

A new poll shows that the reaction at the polls could be a slap in the face to center-left Kadima without hurting nationalist and religious parties and clearly illusrates that the protest movement has not made a political dent in the government coalition. The results of the Panorama poll, released on Voice of Israel government radio last week, are a blow to the ”social justice” protest movement that has tried to set up the Netanyahu government as the source of most of Israel’s social and economic problems. If elections. were held now, the Likud party would maintain its 27 seats,...

Israelis have again taken to the streets in mass protests over the high cost of living. At least 250,000 people joined the protests, with the main rallies in Tel Aviv, Jerusalem and Haifa, although some Israeli media put the turnout as high as 400,000. They are the latest in a series of protests held throughout the summer. Many Israelis are angry at the high cost of housing, food, education and health care. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government has responded by forming a committee to examine calls for reform, although he has warned he cannot meet all the protesters' demands. Economic...

Over 153,000 people gather across country to take part in social protest movement marches, rallies being held; protesters in Tel Aviv's Kikar HaMedina prepare for huge rally. Over 100,000 people gathered in Tel Aviv on Saturday evening for social movement protests taking place as part of the “March of the Million.” People were gathering in Kikar Hamedina in the city where a huge rally was set to take place after a march through the streets of the city.

The protesters demand "social justice" and a more equitable economy but their exact demands are not clear. According to an investigative report by Maariv's Kalman Libeskind, the protests were engineered by a group of media strategists who are directed by prominent Democratic strategist Stanley Greenberg, a former adviser to Bill Clinton, John Kerry and others. Greenberg directed the strategists to create a protest that was not led by one specific group, in order to create social ferment. An unnamed left-wing leader would eventually step into this ferment and take the reins, Greenberg predicted. The Israeli strategists reportedly include Boaz Gaon,...

Last weekend's protests were among the biggest Israel has ever seen Last Saturday, hundreds of thousands of protesters took to the streets of a Middle Eastern city. Demanding change, they were fed up with the ruling elite and said their government was no longer listening to its people. But this was not Egypt, Tunisia or Libya. This was Israel. If the Israeli government had hoped the street protests, which began three weeks ago, would lose momentum and fade away, it has not happened. An estimated 300,000 people from different backgrounds joined the latest marches across the country. Just as their...