Israel

Asian Eateries and Fascism

I officially never want to hear that Israel is a 'democracy', or the natural 'ally' of the United States, again.

Ok? Just stop it. You're embarassing yourself.

The country is an official theocracy, with special rules and status for Jews and those of Jewish descent, a brutal apartheid against the Palestinians, an aggressive and paranoid military complex ruling the country in conjunction with religious elites, etc. There is no way you can reasonably look at Israel and not conclude that it is a fascist nation, and I thought that World War II established once and for all that fascists are NOT our friends. Still, people persist, and fail to see the problems that stem from our strongest 'ally' in the Middle East being a theocratic, fascist police-state.

The problems still exist though.

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel's Asian restaurants went on a one-day spring roll strike on Tuesday in protest over government plans to rid kitchens of foreign chefs, and said sushi and noodles would be the next items off the menu.

The restaurants are angry at government plans to purge Japanese, Chinese and Thai eateries of Asian cooks and replace them with Israelis as part of a broader programme to cut the number of foreigners working in the Jewish state.

Purge is an appropriate term; they're trying to get rid of these people, legal immigrants, some of them having lived in Israel for decades, solely because they can then hand their jobs to Israelis. They won't let these people BECOME Israelis because their skin's the wrong color and they worship the wrong god.

Israel attracts virtually no immigrants from Asia since anyone seeking citizenship here must prove they have Jewish family or links to the country.

Seeking to plug a gap in the labour market during the first Palestinian uprising, Israel allowed foreigners to work in the Jewish state. But now it is trying to limit those numbers to create more jobs for Israelis.

This year the government is granting 500 permits to Asian chefs compared with 900 last year. Next year no permits will be issued, although restaurants willing to pay twice the average national salary will be allowed to employ chefs as "experts".

The government argues Israelis can be trained.

"Everyone can make Chinese food it's not impossible to learn," said Shoshana Strauss, a lawyer working on foreign worker issues for the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Labor.

Hey, Strauss? Fuck you, you insensitive asshole.

Job training isn't the point here, dipshit. The point is that you've made an entire class of people into second-class citizens and are trying to deport them, after firing them from their jobs, because of their RACE AND RELIGION.

To quote the great Keith Olbermann, 'You're a FASCIST! You should have a t-shirt printed that says FASCIST on it!'

Never, ever tell me that Israel is just like the United States, that as a government or on a national level they share our values. They do NOT. They are the last bastion of fascism in the world today, an enemy we thought we had beaten back decades ago, but which got a new lease on life, ironically from the very refugees who had seen its terrible power first hand, and decided, for whatever reason, that they should have that power for themselves. What a Faustian bargain that turned out to be.

Source: Reuters