Jul 6, 2011

Quote Of The Day

Quote Of The Day

It's pointless (chaval al ha'zman) to turn Sunday into a day off. As it is, if you look at the streets of tel Aviv and the other large cities, have the country always has the day off. People here are not accustomed to working. Take first the haredim - look at the details of the workers in Israel, 6 to 8 percent of the population does not work. Of 19% of the Arab sector, 50% of them don't work at all. And the Jews are not particularly diligent and hardworking. Everybody here is involved in working out "combinot" (shady business).
Adopting the Sunday day off is superfluous - as it is we are on vacation 7 days of the week.

  -- Journalist Ron Kaufman

8 comments:

  1. Where did that come from?

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  2. I saw it quoted I think in Walla in an article about various responses to the "Sunday" proposal

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  3. I am reminded of the joke an Israeli (a Chasid Gur, in fact) told me about 33 years ago (in the days when Israel still had a six day work week):

    The Labor Minister brought the Prime Minister a proposal to institute a five day work week in Israel.
    So the Prime Minister answered him: It sounds like a good idea, but we will have to institute this gradually. First, we convince Israelis to work one day a week, then two days a week, and so on. In the end, if we are lucky, we will have them working five days a week.

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  4. I'll be honest, I don't think he's far off. Every time I go to the mall in the middle of the morning, it's packed with men and women, not just women with kids, although there are plenty of those. I'm always seeing a bunch of guys in jeans hanging out smoking and drinking coffee. I don't really disagree with him.

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  5. Catriel, my husband just recounted that story and he said it was Levi Eshkol who was the PM

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  6. Having people in the malls is not a sign of laziness or unemployment -- just that of a healthy economy.

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  7. It could just be a sign of people living above their means, or just not saving.

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