Which is odd, as we were buying the gas at close to the market price, even though Egypt sold it to the supplier at well below the market. Also, since the cost of gas makes up less than 40% in the consumer tariff, it is quite impossible that any sensible rise in the price of gas would affect the consumer tariff by a third. This reasoning makes sense if we recall that the price of electricity will be increased over three years. It is completely implausible that the power monopoly would absorb the losses in the meantime; thus we can deduce that the utility breaks even but wants to increase its profit.

One possible explanation is the mammoth number of state and trade-unionized employees in Israel, who enjoy protection against layoffs regardless of their economic efficiency. But the figure of 5% simply cannot cover the Arabs (especially the overwhelmingly unemployed Bedouins) and haredim (who are actually employed in the black market economy).

A while ago, responding to ’social justice’ demonstrations, the government took money from some programs in order to fund other programs demanded by the demonstrators. But both sets of programs are equally wasteful, unjust, and unacceptable in a free-market society.

The municipal strike demonstrates to the government that it cannot keep taking money from silent groups to benefit vociferous ones, because the silent strata can easily become equally vociferous. The government has to devise a meaningful policy to dealing with demands for redistribution—refusing them all rather than resorting to instead of ad hoc cut-and-patch attempts.

The asbestos scare was fashionable decades ago, but was completely disproved in the 1990s, when several studies found no link between asbestos and lung cancer. The protocols of the earlier tests were published, showing that mice developed cancer only after being fed asbestos by the spoonful.

That’s for sure. The problem is, who will pay? Two answers are probable: foreign merchants who accept the cards in online transactions, or the Israeli government. Both options are highly unethical because they allow the real culprits to avoid responsibility. Those culprits would be the coupon companies that maintained buggy websites to collect credit-card data.

Even though the hackers are not probably Saudis, but more likely Turks, Muslims are not known for their expertise in computer security. Most certainly, they exploited a standard vulnerability. The coupon companies are guilty, then, of gross negligence, and the government must go after them.

This is an odd story. If we view gas reserves as merely another object of commerce, then it makes no sense to develop the fields, the operation of which would be complicated by Hezbollah terrorism and Lebanese territorial claims. Private companies will profit while the state handles all this trouble. Besides, Egypt and Russia will be happy to supply us gas at market prices.

The main reason given for developing the fields is energy independence. If so, why allow private companies to export our gas, much less promote such a squandering of a strategic resource?

The trick is in averages. Israel’s extensive welfare system makes the jobless and poor relatively well off. Their standard of living is not far below that of professional welfare recipients in the United States. But educated Israelis employed in the commercial sector face a five- to tenfold gap in purchasing power compared with their American colleagues.

Here is the situation: Israel enters a costly conflict with Lebanon/Hezbollah—supported by Turkey—over the gas field. More likely than not, we will have to defend the field against terrorist attacks, especially since Hezbollah clearly has access to sea-to-sea missiles. We also face a major diplomatic battle with Lebanon over the rights to the field. In return, we will buy gas from Tamar at a somewhat higher-than-market price.

Short of transferring all the illegals to UNRWA camps in Gaza, the only option is to give them three-year work permits and mandate that a small part of their salaries be withheld to pay for their return tickets.

According to the WA’s logic, plants do not need artificial watering in winter because there is ample rain. This reasoning is odd, because if there is enough rain for garden plants, then there is enough rain for crops, too. So what need is there for the restriction?

In practice, winter rains are not sufficient for garden plants, and so Israelis water their gardens in secret. Except for Israeli Arabs, of course, who do so openly and with stolen water.