It's not Prime Minister Yair Lapid, not former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and not renegade candidate Hadar Muchtar's nonsense. What tens of thousands of Israelis are truly up in arms about is the sky-high price of shawarma and they have taken a dramatic decision to stop eating their favorite dish on Mondays.
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The cost of the once-cheap street food has become unaffordable. Shawarma in pita bread, which used to cost 25 shekels (about $5), not so long ago, has soared to 50 shekels ($14); in a flatbread, the same dish now costs 60 shekels ($17), while if you want to sit down and eat your shawarma on a plate that will put you at least 80 shekels ($22) out of pocket. Now the members of a Facebook group for shawarma lovers have decided to take action. You've heard of Meatless Monday. Get ready for Shawarmaless Monday.
It might sound amusing, but it is a wonderful example of how in the current election campaign, politicians have missed the mark, big time. Once, on the cost of living issue, which for most people is the most important, upsetting, and concrete problem they face; and a second time as it shows how politicians are disconnected from the public. While the politicians stoke the "Bibi" or "Just Not Bibi" flames and debate the finer points of criminal offenses such as breach of trust, the Israeli public is suffering because of the cost of tuna, it is downbeat over rising restaurant prices and troubled over how to get through the coming Hannukah holiday without having to sell an arm and a leg.
Everyone is talking about voter turnout in the Arab community, but nobody is talking about the essence of the vote. At a time when right-wing candidate Itamar Ben-Gvir is splitting hairs over the difference between "Death to the Arabs" and "Death to the terrorists," it is clear that Israel must be held accountable by the Arab street and the Arabs must go out and vote.
The Arab citizens of Israel deserve more. The family physician, the pharmacists, the colleague from work, and the Arab from the neighboring town all deserve to be able to live like all the rest of us. They deserve proper education and functioning infrastructures. They deserve roads that aren't crumbling and community centers that don't look as if they are about to fall down.
It would be a stretch to say that the Mansour Abbas experiment – in which an Arab party agreed to join a government for the first time – was a success. He wanted to deal with civilian matter, but his party colleagues and its Islamic leadership took him to debates over the Temple Mount, and his number two, Walid Taha, said during a military operation that his heart was with the Palestinians.
Pressure on representatives of the Arab sector to leave nationalism behind and live a normal life has to start from below. These elections could be a turning point for the Arab sector.
Let me give you an earth-shaking scoop: Politicians are good people. It's true we like to berate them, vilify them, and fire off clichés about how they are only concerned with their own welfare and their Knesset seat, but that isn't really the case for most politicians. We are talking about top people who could earn a lot more in the private sector, not to mention not being constantly denigrated.
It isn't a great pleasure sitting in Knesset committees for hours on end discussing clauses to an amendment to the National Insurance Institute, income tax, and other regulatory issues, It isn't much fun sitting out filibusters in the Knesset plenum and then being exposed to toxic criticism and malicious talkbacks. We also have to remember that the great majority of politicians who will be elected to the Knesset today have entered politics out of a sense of mission and a desire to do good.
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