50,000 Holocaust survivors in Israel living in poverty, report finds

[R. Daneel Olivaw]

http://www.jpost.com/National-News/50000-Holocaust-survivors-in-Israel-living-in-poverty-report-finds-350178

1 out of every 5 survivors was forced to choose between food and medication during the past two years, survey finds.

Of the 193,000 Holocaust survivors living in Israel today, some 50,000 live in poverty, according to a report that came out Wednesday.

The report by the Foundation for the Benefit of Holocaust Victims in Israel consists of several elements, including updated statistics the foundation has gathered, as well as two surveys – one conducted among Holocaust survivors, and one among the general public.
---
“The needs of the Holocaust survivors will increase until 2015, and this is a critical time in which the foundation expects an increase in requests,” said foundation CEO Rony Kalinsky. “The window of opportunity of the next five years is coming to a close, and now we must harness everything concerned into concrete actions [to enable] a life of dignity for Holocaust survivors in Israel.”

Since the USA gifts $3-4 bn per year to Israel, perhaps the only democracy in the mid-east could spend less on US military hardware and provide a few coppers more to those that need it most. Military strength is meaningless when the least amongst you go without.

This goes for America as well.

[azurnoir]

1. actually it's an improvment

66% of survivors are surviving off the meager income of NIS 3,000 a month ($859 dollars; less than the typical monthly rent price for a studio apartment in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv), for that had more than a third of Holocaust survivors turn to HSF for assistance.

"Our mission is not only to give Holocaust survivors their rights, but also to fulfill their wish to die with dignity," HSF Chairman Avi Dichter stated in the report.

Chairman of the Caucus for Holocaust Survivors in the Knesset, MK Yifat Kariv (Yesh Atid), noted that the results are actually an improvement on statistics from years past.

"Harsh reports on the current situation for Holocaust survivors are released every year ahead of Holocaust Memorial day, but I deal with these tough issues year-round," Kariv stated Wednesday. "This year, we see an improvement on the living conditions for survivors compared to years past."

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/179839#.U1ilmVfA8-s

I would think that on this subject Arutz Sheva could be trusted

[Mzane]

9. Not just holocaust survivors

I believe Israel did set aside money for holocaust survivors, maybe after your post? It's a bigger problem though. In Israel, the divide between the very rich, very poor and everybody else, [that are having a harder time] has grown A LOT. Of course anybody who went through the holocaust survived deserves to be pampered there, as the country probably might not exist if it were not for the Holocaust
but it is very sad to see so many poor elderly in Israel having to choose between food or medicine. Not acceptable. The economic divide in Israel has increased over the last 30-40 years. It wasn't all that long ago when being rich meant having a better pair of sandals. Not now. The country produces lots of money, especially from funded ventures but it ends up in the pockets of a small number of people. Politicians+Businesses=inequality?

[Spitfire of ATJ]

2. I can hear the RW types over there now claiming the choice is them or total destruction.

[Shaktimaan]

3. It's not a "this or that" issue.

The plight of survivors living in poverty is awful, but it's not related to us military aid in any sense.

The US provides aid that can only be used to buy US weaponry and equipment. That's the point of the aid. It's as much corpora welfare as it is foreign relations.

[R. Daneel Olivaw]

4. Actually when you are wrong you are really wrong.

The plight of the remaining Holocaust survivors living in poverty is not awful. It is beyond awful. It is beyond comprehension that a country whose sugar daddy pumps billions ($90+ billion up to 2000) per year in aid can't take care of the most vulnerable in its society.

How is it that a country that is supposedly doing so well, and rivals some European nations, cannot take care of the few remaining Holocaust survivors and keep them out of poverty; seeing how the culmination of the birth of Israel was formed from the very ashes of the Holocaust...from the very people who seem to be overlooked now?

But to dissect this question we have to first ask what does Israel spend $3 billion on per year in US military aid?

There are no declared wars that Israel is presently fighting. There are no front lines. The road to an Iranian theater is a long way away and just a sweet dream that Netanyahu has from time to time.

The real reason for US military aid, which Israel Uses, is to kepp watch over the 500k+ illegal Israeli setters colonizing the West Bank.

The US give $$ which translates to military aid that Israel uses to keep a population under its heel while protecting its colonial population in the process. Tanks, Gunships, Jets, artillery, rockets, training; all aimed at keeping the Palestinians in line while Israel eats their country dulum by dulum.

But let's not stop there.

Israel also has to take care of their colonistas. They have to provide roads and buildings, running water and electricity, schools and checkpoints not to forget IDF patrols to keep these illegitimate places humming along. That takes resources: also known as money.

And that money could be better spent on a few elderly Holocaust survivors who don't have many years left in front of them. Israel should do better by them.

So yes, it is a this or that issue. Either Israel can take care of the most vulnerable in its society, while it receives a grandiose amount of US$$, or it can show where its priorities lay.

[Shaktimaan]

5. What exactly am I wrong about?

US aid isn't in dollars. It's in military equipment, which unlike dollars, is hardly fungible. US aid isn't spent on roads, electricity or schools in the opt. I fail to see what military aid has to do with social issues like govt assistance.

So yes, it is a this or that issue. Either Israel can take care of the most vulnerable in its society, while it receives a grandiose amount of US$$, or it can show where its priorities lay.

That statement makes no sense. You're essentially saying that if Israel takes care of its vulnerable citizens then it CANT show where it's priorities lie. Those two things are totally not mutually exclusive. Nor is providing for survivors and maintaining the occupation. Your argument is senseless.

[R. Daneel Olivaw]

6. I know this may be difficult for you so I will use small words with hope that you can understand.

Last edited Mon May 5, 2014, 07:54 PM - Edit history (1)

1) The USA gives Israel military aid.

2) Israel uses its military to keep the Palestinian population under its heel.

3) Israel uses its military to fortify its colonial ambition.

4) Israel spends $$ to build illegal settlements.

5) Israel uses its military to protect its illegal settlements.

6) Israel spends $$ to build roads to illegal settlements.

7) Israel shows where its priorities are.

8) Israel's priorities are obvious: maintaining occupation.

9) Israel seems to have chosen between occupation and helping the well fare of it's poor: Holocaust survivors.

10) Your words: It's ($$ Military aid) as much corpora welfare as it is foreign relations.

11) Israel receives welfare from the USA in military aid but doesn't seem to offset that with helping the neediest people in its own country.

12) Israel's priorities should lie with Israel and its citizens not colonizing other other people's lands and wasting $$ there.

13) Israel isn't a poor country.

14) A nation that is so heavily subsidized in one area should be able to make up for that on its domestic side.

15) My statement makes perfect sense. Some just want to play dumb with it.


Here's some interesting articles on US aid to Israel

http://jewishvoiceforpeace.org/content/us-military-aid-and-israel

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/chase-madar/israel-military-aid_b_4759159.html

[Shaktimaan]

7. Wow!

Thanks for using small words but my problem was never a failure to understand your argument. It is that your argument doesn't make any sense.

You're overlooking a few key realities by making this argument as well as making assumptions that you have no evidence for.

Assumption 1: impoverished holocaust survivors not getting enough aid is due to a lack of funds on Israel's part.

In reality the article described the problem as bureaucratic in nature. Not due to a lack of funds or desire to help them. Which is why new legislation was presented to fix the gaps in the welfare net Israel has always provided. No one suggested the issue stemmed from a budgetary shortfall or disinterest in the issue.

Logical failure 1: 3 billion in aid is the same thing as saving 3 billion dollars. If Oprah gives you a $50,000 car, did you just save 50,000? No, not unless you were about to buy that car anyway. One thing has nothing to do with the other. Odds are that Israel would obtain considerably fewer state of the art US jet fighters were they not free.

Logical failure 2: comparing any two specific programs that a government funds is a way to indicate national values in any sense.

Israel's government spends money on countless programs. You could just as easily point towards money spent on housing refugees, granting corporations tax breaks, sending medics to Haiti or subsidizing Torah students with stipends and ask why they take precedence over caring for holocaust survivors. They don't, obviously. Because funding for any single issue isn't in any way directly dependent on the funding for any other, single issue.

If it was truly a "thus or that" issue then it would mean Israel would be forced to choose between survivor welfare and opt operations. That they'd be mutually exclusive. They aren't.

Nor is it clear that Israel'd spend less money in the opt post-occupation. Gaza's a great example of expenditures increasing after they pulled out the military and settlers entirely. In Egypt, where the pullout was part if a peace deal we saw an example of a successful post-occupation landscape, where Israeli concessions were rewarded with peace. Such a deal seems unlikely in the WB.

Which also doesn't affect aid for holocaust survivors.

[R. Daneel Olivaw]

8. Again, when you're wrong you're dead wrong. Did you even bother to read what I had written?

"Assumption 1: impoverished holocaust survivors not getting enough aid is due to a lack of funds on Israel's part."

No, actually that is not what I had written. Please pay attention. I never mentioned that Israel has a lack of funds. On the contrary. Israel is not a poor country.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/113462454

Since the USA gifts $3-4 bn per year to Israel, perhaps the only democracy in the mid-east could spend less on US military hardware and provide a few coppers more to those that need it most. Military strength is meaningless when the least amongst you go without.

This goes for America as well.

Again, since Israel receives $3-4 billion in US aid, regardless if it is military aid, it should be able to offset a portion of what they would pay for that and return that into funds who need it the most. Israel is not a poor country, but we both know that.

No one suggested the issue stemmed from a budgetary shortfall or disinterest in the issue.

Neither did I so I am not sure why you are trying to make that issue an issue.

What I again suggested was the opposite. What $ Israel would have to put in for its military spending the US makes up for with aid. You called it corporate welfare, and most of us know that corporate welfare is undeserved and misspent.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/113462454#post3

Logical failure 1: 3 billion in aid is the same thing as saving 3 billion dollars. If Oprah gives you a $50,000 car, did you just save 50,000? No, not unless you were about to buy that car anyway. One thing has nothing to do with the other. Odds are that Israel would obtain considerably fewer state of the art US jet fighters were they not free.

Wrong again. If I am given a automobile by Oprah or the USA for that matter, every year mind you, I don't have to go and buy one on my own with my own funds. I will have fewer cars if Oprah or the USA weren't gifting me corporate welfare, but perhaps I can at least live within my means, buy what I need and take care of my family. Once again, Israel is not a poor country, but we both know that.

Logical failure 2: comparing any two specific programs that a government funds is a way to indicate national values in any sense.

Really? So pointing out at a bloated military, an illegal occupation, illegal settlements...all which have to be financed while pointing out that Holocaust survivors are going without is verboten? I don't believe so. It is no different than pointing out an illegal US war in Iraq that drains $$ from domestic programs at home.

Israel's government spends money on countless programs.

You're right. How many programs are being financed in the illegal colonization of the West bank? Again, money better spent at home.

Then there's also the new $bachelor pad$ that Bibi is going to construct since the one he has now was apparently too modest for him.

Then there's the ostentatious lifestyle that Israel's dubya has set up for he and his wife. Talk about overkill.

But I digress.

If it was truly a "thus or that" issue then it would mean Israel would be forced to choose between survivor welfare and opt operations. That they'd be mutually exclusive. They aren't.

Really? There's never a comparison between guns and butter? There always is in short-sighted hawkish administrations or just dumb ones. Perhaps both descriptions are valid for Israel as well as America today.

Hey, but don't worry. The problem is rapidly going away. In a few years time the remaining Holocaust survivors will pass away: an embarrassing situation averted.

[Mzane]

10. Military spending the US and Israel

- There is plenty of money in Israel to help holocaust victims and for that matter all the poor elderly that have to choose between between food and medicine.

- Having read the 2015 military budget and Israel's , military budget[for 2014], they are very different. Military may just be the only budget there that has very little extra. Iron Dome is very expensive and it's hard to make life better for anyone if you're dead. Isreal should, in my opinion, stop[ taking military aid or any aid from the USA. Most of the 'free' equipment from the US is outdated, so they end up making modifications before using it, "test" in in life wars and send the specs back to the US. Hopw nice for Grumman and a few other US military corporations. How nice who knows who in US government, actually, to have real money sitting there unspent because they sent "aid" in written off weapons.

- I am NOT defending impoverishing old people or the way in which the Israeli government handles the problem {as in not} In other parts of the Israeli budget there is more than enough corporate welfare to give a life of luxury to these people many times over. One example is the food industry, where Permits for importing, setting up supermarkets, go to businesses owned by a few families, effectively giving them a monopoly. Because of this, packaged food in Israel [the same thing exact item] can sell for 2x the price it does in Europe. These %$^&$&%^$& businesses then do things like deliberately raising the price of milk products before shavuot [a religious holiday where the custom is to eat milk products], That one led to mass demonstrations and some price controls. There are plenty of other examples -- like farm subsidies (yep like those in the US}, in this case, to former kibbutzim for agriculture dating back decades to a time when the country needed food badly. Now they are selling real-estate and still getting the subsidies

- It would be nice if all of those Israeli charities gave money to poor Israeli old people instead of whatever other things they aren't doing after their massive overheads.

-