5/1 Possible Israeli General Strike

Israel may have a general strike on Thursday, International Workers Day, May 1, which labor leader Amir Peretz promises to be the "largest strike in the history of Israel." See:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/2985241.stm

This strike, originally scheduled for April 30, 2003, has been postponed for 24 hours pending negotiations. See:
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/dowjones/20030408/bs_dowjones/200304081635001002

Israel, the US military base, paid for with $4 billion annually above the table and $4 billion annually below the table from the US taxpayers to protect US oil profits in the Middle East, is now too expensive for the US taxpayers to maintain in the face of the Palestinian resistance and the crumbling capitalist world economy.

Pertinent paragraphs from the BBC article:

"A general strike was first mooted by the Histadrut, the country's main labour federation, last month after Finance Minister Binyamin Netanyahu unveiled 10% cuts across the board for ministry budgets, as well as sackings of up to one in 10 public sector workers. "

"For the Histadrut, the 11bn shekel cuts are a step too far, not least because they were imposed in violation of collective bargaining agreements. "

"The organisation acknowledges that Israel's economy is in tatters after two years of a renewed Palestinian uprising, which has hit key sectors including tourism and construction and slashed tax receipts. "

"Security spending has ballooned too, just as the global downturn hit the burgeoning hi-tech industries which Israel had spun off from its military research programmes. "

"While wealthy Israelis remain relatively comfortable, more than one Israeli worker in 10 is now out of work. "

From the Dow Jones article:

"The Histadrut reflexively opposes budget cuts. But this time, the opposition is running deeper because Netanyahu threatened the heart of the Histadrut's power by vowing to legislate public sector payroll cuts if the federation refused to agree to them. His program would also put government hands on the labor federation's pension funds. "

"A general strike would shut down government offices, airports and seaports, railways, the postal service, banks and the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange, and put state-owned utilities and other government operations on skeleton staffs. "

"It would only further disrupt an economy already clobbered by 30 months of warfare with the Palestinians and the collapse of the world technology market, which had been a driver of growth. "