In Israel Protests, a Surprise Arab-Inspired Taste

[elleng]

Israelis, living in an island of relative freedom and comfort and surrounded by countries they generally view with disdain, are not accustomed to taking their cues from Arabs.

So the idea that the eruption of a mass movement protesting Israel's corrosive social inequality could have been influenced — even inspired — by the Mideast's Arab Spring revolts, for many Israelis, just doesn't compute.

But the traces of influence were there as a quarter million Israelis took to the streets last weekend to protest a stratospheric cost of living, poor public services and one of the highest income gaps in the developed world.

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2011/08/10/world/middleeast/AP-ML-Israel-Inspired-Revolution.html?hp