abidinginhim
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From Bridges of Peace...
As Arye Zohar queued at an Israeli soup kitchen yesterday, his country’s leaders were preparing an austerity budget that promises to deal him and hundreds of thousands of Israelis another blow. Like 20 % of Israelis, he is already living below the poverty line.
Across town in the Knesset, Ariel Sharon’s Government was expected to win a final reading for approximately US $3.2 billion in budget cuts that will fall heavily on the poor, further stretching Israel’s safety net, analysts say.
Mr. Sharon argues that the cuts are needed to stabilize an economy devastated by two years of Palestinian intifada, a slump in tourism and the once- booming high-tech sector, and to stop a downgrading of Israel’s credit rating.
At the Hazon Yeshaya kosher kitchen, in Jerusalem’s Orthodox Mekor Baruch neighborhood, Mr Zohar and other men and women, religious and secular, lined up with plastic bags during a cold drizzle. They stood at a rear entrance to avoid the embarrassment of being seen.
Mr. Zohar, 46, worked as a computer programmer for 15 years. Now he is part of what social workers call “the new poor”, those who have tumbled from steady work to poverty, existing on less than US $560 a month and dependent on handouts. According to organizers, demand for meals at the soup kitchen has risen by around 40 % in the past two years.
“At first I was so ashamed that I just came and peered inside,” Mr. Zohar said, who was carrying bags of pita bread and cooked meat for his four children. “It took a long time. But now I have got used to asking for food. It is really the greatest punishment in the world for a man to endure, but you get used to it.”
He said that his phone had been cut off three months ago and he spends all his welfare payments on food and heating. “We have just one heater, so I have moved everybody into the same room,” he said.
Those in line at the kitchen were greeted by volunteers who know their favorite choices, from the red lentil soup, chicken cutlet, barley and salad. “We run a five-star establishment,” quipped Dvora Cohen, who oversees distribution.
Statistics show poverty rising rapidly in Israel and a widening gap between rich and poor in a country that was founded on an egalitarian socialist Zionist ethos. The budget will cut payments to the unemployed by up to 34 %. In addition, low-income earners will lose up to 44 % of allowances.
During the 1990s Israel’s economy boomed, partly as a result of investment attracted by Yitzhak Rabin’s peace agreement and a promising high-tech computer industry.
Last year, however, 26.9 %, or 530,000 Israeli children, were below the poverty line and the figure is expected to rise to 605,000 for 2002, with Arab citizens the hardest- hit. While tax revenues have dropped, defense spending has grown, causing a projected 4 % budget deficit for 2002. A spokesman for Mr. Sharon said on December 17 that Israel hoped that the United States would quickly approve its request for US $10 billion in aid.
Unemployment is more than 10 % and is forecast to reach 12 % in 2003. For the Palestinians, things are even worse: United Nations figures show that unemployment has reached between 50 and 70 %, and people in Gaza live on less than US $2 a day.
Pointing to a new capital gains tax in the budget, the Government argues that the poor are not being singled out and that the burden of a war forced on Israel is being carried by all sectors of society.
Etti Avraham, a divorced mother of two who lives in the Shapira slum area of Tel Aviv, does not see it that way. “What is there left to cut?” she asked. She has to choose between after-school classes for her children and food. “I prefer less food and that they learn more. I won’t eat meat; they will.”
(By Ben Lynfield, London Times, December 18, 2002)
PRAYER FOCUS
As the economy in Israel worsens, the plight of the poor becomes more and more grave each day. Bridges for Peace operates the largest food bank in Israel, giving 45 tons of food each month, through direct assistance and through 70 organizations, one of which is the soup kitchen in this article. Forty-five tons is a huge amount of food, but the needs are so much bigger. We would like to double the amount of food given each month. Pray with us that more funds for food will be given so we can assist many more of God’s chosen people. If you want to give to our projects to help the needy, click http://www.bfpusa.org/help.html
SCRIPTURE
“Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to him, ‘Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed,’ but does nothing for his physical needs, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead” (James 2:15-17).
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It's All About Him!
Posts: 137 | From: The Mountains of NC | Registered: Nov 2002
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