How is it possible that sixty-five years after Auschwitz, Jews are oppressing another people?
The occupation comes with a significant cost to Israel: A report by the Adva Centre in Tel Aviv says, `The second intifada has hurt Israel deeply, resulting in a cessation of economic growth, in a lowering of the standard of living, in the debilitating of its social services, in the dilution of its safety net, and an increase in the extent and depth of poverty. As unemployment has risen and poverty widened, many social benefits have been sharply reduced, including a cut of almost a third in income support for the poor and single mothers. The most tangible outcome has been the mushrooming of soup kitchens and of `hand-out` societies, previously unknown in Israel except in the Orthodox Jewish communities.’ Israel spent billions building settlements, the report says. `This is money that was diverted from the internal social agenda,’ the author, Shlomo Swirski, writes. By 2003, 20% of Israelis were living below the poverty line. More important than the above, however, is the corrosive and
