THE PROMISED LAND?

Capitalism is worldwide and it produces social problems no matter where it operates. Even in relatively economically advanced Israel the spectre of poverty and hunger is present. 'More families are going without food and more children are forced to go begging, according to a report from the Latet Israeli Humanitarian Aid organization, released on Monday. The 2012 Alternative Poverty Report from Latet, a non-government umbrella group for food aid organizations in Israel, found that 10 per cent of children who live in impoverished families receiving support resorted to begging, up from just three percent in 2011. The report also found that 50% of children from struggling families were required to work in order to help maintain the household.' (The Times of Israel, 17 December) This is hardly the land flowing with milk and honey dreamt of by all those zealous pioneers who struggled for a homeland for dispossessed Jewish refugees. RD