RUTHFULLY YOURS

This week, while Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was in New York addressing the United Nations General Assembly — and hitting the talk-show circuit to make the case for remaining vigilant on Iran — two domestic stories were taking precedence at water coolers across Israel.

The first was a three-part series of news items presented by Channel 10’s senior economic correspondent, Matan Hodorov, on the phenomenon of Israeli emigration. The second was the grand opening of a Tel Aviv cafe called Cofix, which offers take-away coffee and baked goods for only 5 shekels (about $1.40) apiece.

Hodorov’s program, “The New Yordim” (a traditionally derogatory term for Israelis who abandon their homeland for greener pastures abroad), examines the latest wave of young people leaving Israel, many of them in favor of Berlin. Naturally, there’s nothing like a tale of coming full circle — from Jews fleeing the Nazis, only to have their grandchildren flock back to Germany a few decades later for affordable housing, easily obtainable marijuana and trendy pubs — to make for an interesting study. But not all of the Israelis interviewed had moved to Europe. Some were in the United States, of course, and others in Australia. Nothing new about that.

Indeed, throughout Israel’s very short history, there have been waves of emigration and an equal number of newspaper articles, doctoral theses and dinner-table discussions on their significance. Periodically, when talking about where Zionism is headed, journalists point to the illustrious founding fathers, politicians and authors whose offspring live outside of Israel. One example often cited is Alon Ben-Gurion, the grandson of Israel’s first prime minister, who manages the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York.

In 1976, Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin referred to the emigration wave at the time as a “fallout of weaklings.” Of course, Rabin — like many of his snooty, judgmental peers — spent so much of his own time outside of the country for work and play that his phrase was mocked for being hypocritical. Today, Finance Minister Yair Lapid is getting similar flak for remarks against emigration that he made this week during a trip to Budapest.

Not only is he being attacked for having the nerve to criticize young Israelis choosing to live elsewhere when he himself spent a number of years outside the country; but, as the person in charge of the economy, he is accused of being the culprit behind the phenomenon. Yes, no matter what the position of individual Israelis on the question of the legitimacy of leaving home, all seem to agree that emigration is the government’s fault and that preventing it is the government’s responsibility.

As usual, the whiners have got it right for all the wrong reasons. The Tel Aviv coffee shop offering drastically reduced prices is the perfect proof that what the government should be doing is staying out of our business, both literally and figuratively. Whenever it does so — such as when it removed restrictions on cell-phone companies — the public feels the immediate benefits of a competitive marketplace.

About four years after Rabin coined his famous anti-emigration epithet, the Alba pharmacy on Jaffa Road in Jerusalem advertised that it was lowering its prices by a considerable amount. Rather than celebrating, Israelis of all stripes flew into a rage, claiming that this would hurt consumers.

As an American who had moved to Israel in 1977, I was dumbfounded. How in the world could cheaper goods be bad for consumers?

The answer I repeatedly received was that, by pulling such a stunt, Alba would put other pharmacies out of business. This would be terrible, ostensibly, because customers would no longer be able to run down to the corner drug store for aspirin. Instead, they would be forced to drive or take a bus to the center of town for this purpose.

It is a wonder I didn’t go bald from all the tearing out of my hair during that period trying to explain that, while some pharmacies might go out of business, others would find ways of competing. If lowering their prices wasn’t an option (due to a smaller bulk of clientele), they could be creative. Perhaps, for instance, they could sell different products at the check-out counter.

“Like what?” I was asked.

“I don’t know,” I said. “Like lollipops.”

“Lollipops?!” retorted incredulous Israelis. “At a pharmacy?!”

We’ve come a long way since those days, that’s for sure; certainly far enough for Israelis to appreciate a genuine bargain. This is why Cofix has been jam-packed since its opening, leaving neighboring cafe owners to start contemplating a competitive comeback.

What the public still has not managed to do, however, is connect the dots of its dissatisfaction to comprehend the bigger picture — that the less the government dictates, the better for society as a whole.

It really is long overdue for the “start-up nation” to wake up and smell the coffee: In a healthy market, emigration, like the cost of living, will take care of itself.

Ruthie Blum is the author of “To Hell in a Handbasket: Carter, Obama, and the ‘Arab Spring.'”