Why the Violence Against Nurses and Teachers in Israel?

by Moshe Feiglin

The nurses are striking after another bout of violence against them. Why do disgruntled patients and their families hit the nurses? Why are teachers the target of violence?

Do you hit doctors who you pay out of your own pocket? When you send your child to a private tutor, do you hit him? Could it be that the people being hit are those who are providing services for free, while those who demand payment for their services are accorded more honor?

The free service is bad? That’s still not a reason to hit those who provide it. Nurses put their hearts and souls into their work – and teachers do, as well. So why do we treat them so horribly?

Health and education services are perhaps the most blatant examples of Israeli socialism. They are both services that the State pretends to provide while attempting to prevent the private sector from competing. The result is that in both these fields, Israeli spending is among the highest in the world, but the achievements of the Israeli student, for example, are in the 39th place in the world (behind Turkey). The overworked Israeli doctor falls asleep while standing, while the nurses are forced to deal with potentially violent patients.

The awful people who hit the nurses do so because since Israel was founded, it has fostered a socialist culture that transfers all responsibility to the state. Then everyone competes for the attention of the system. There is no producer/consumer relationship involved. Instead, our health and education systems are based on the “kindness” of Big Brother toward the “rabble” fighting for their place in line.

The solution for the health field is to privatize Israel’s hospitals, on the condition that the parties competing for the tender will continue to provide the service already provided by the hospital at the same price. In a certain way, this has already been done in the maternity wards, which compete for the Social Security vouchers that the government provides for the mother. As a result, maternity wards in Israel look like 5-star hotels.

The same is true for education. The voucher method will turn the teachers into private tutors, and the parents will treat them accordingly.

Let there be healthy competition between the hospitals, which will lead to major improvements in their services. Excellent doctors who bring in more patients will be compensated accordingly, salaries will rise, the patients will receive better service and nobody will hit the nurses (or teachers) – who he has chosen himself and can also fire – anymore.