The demonstrations taking place throughout the country and the publicity they've been getting makes it seem that the whole country is demonstrating and supports the demonstrators in their demands: cheaper housing, more help for young parents in bearing the cost of pre-school education and higher salaries for doctors.
From time to time other groups, like the elderly, holocaust survivors and the handicapped also participate.
Demonstrations are great because they bring problems to light and they might influence members of parliament to vote against the government which would bring about an election, but a democratic government doesn't resign because of a demonstration.
In the case of totalitarian governments, like you have in the Arab countries where many demonstrations have taken place recently, demonstrations are the only way to change the government.
If the government resigns because of this demonstration we would be like those totalitarian societies. It would mean the end of democracy in Israel. In a democracy We need to know that a true majority of the people aren't satisfied with the government before it resigns.
Demonstrations are legitimate and the government must listen to their complaints and possibly investigate making some laws to take care of the complaints. But resigning, definitely no, that would be anti-democratic.
A majority is decided according to the number of members of parliament who support or are against the government. That is democracy. Those members of parliament have been elected by the people and they constitute the will of the people.
A mass of people demonstrating doesn't constitute the will of the people.
Thank God we are a democracy, that's why I like to live in Israel.
People who demonstrate in a democratic society do so because they know that they can't topple the government by a representative majority of members of parliament.
Here, in Israel, a democratic society, a group of people are trying to topple the government by undemocratic means. It won't work because we aren't a totalitarian society as some tycoons who are supporting this demonstrations think we are.
As I say I don't oppose demonstrating for more benefits, higher salaries etc but I do oppose demonstrating to topple the government. That is an attempt to ruin democracy.
It's about time that the opposition went out to the electorate and worked at trying to woo more of them to support them in the next elections rather than throwing their weight with the tycoons in organizing gigantic demonstrations in an attempt to topple the government undemocratically.
I'm not in favor of Netanyahu's government and their policies but I am much less in favor of trying to topple them by undemocratic means. In fact I fear such means and will definitely not participate even though I agree that the cost of living is high and that we earn too little for the work we do.
No matter how many people demonstrate and no matter how violent they are there's no way of knowing that they represent the majority of the people.
If the people don't believe in the government which they've elected then obviously they must elect another government who they do believe in.
Democratic governments, however only resign when a vote in parliament goes against them, which means that they don't have a majority. A mass protest, no matter how big, can't prove to the government that they don't have a majority to govern.
