Israeli Marxism
以色列的马克思主义
It is difficult to explain to people living outside of Israel, and especially to Americans, the extent to which Israelis truly believe in communism.
很难对生活于以色列之外的人，尤其是美国人，解释清楚以色列人信仰共产主义的程度之深。
Sometimes they call it socialism, but they basically mean communism.
有时他们称其为社会主义，但是基本上他们指的就是共产主义。
This is not to say that they behave as communists in their private lives. Quite the contrary, Israelis live as the ultimate ideal of capitalism. They are enormously individualist. They are exceptionally good at starting and managing businesses, and of development and marketing innovations. Israel as a country has more start-up businesses than all of Europe. It registers more patents than any European country.
这并非指他们在自己的私人生活中像共产主义者那么行动。恰恰相反，以色列人像资本主义的终极典范那样生活。他们很大程度上是个人主义者。他们极其善于创建和管理企业，并对开发和推销创新也很在行。作为一个国家，以色列拥有比整个欧洲更多的创业公司。它的专利注册数也比任何一个欧洲国家多。
Yet those very same Israelis, who demonstrate every day their skills in succeeding in markets, hate markets. The word “socialism” carries enormously romantic and positive implications for Israelis. Especially among educated (non-Russian-born) Israelis. The word capitalism is something of an obscenity for most Israelis.
然而，这些每天展示着在市场中如鱼得水技能的以色列人却讨厌市场。对以色列人来说，“社会主义”这个词带有极大的浪漫和正面意味，尤其是在受过教育的以色列人之中（在俄国出生的以色列人除外）。资本主义这个词则对大部分以色列人带有某些侮辱意味。
I suspect that someone arrested for assault could get himself off in court if he claimed the victim had called him a capitalist, it being a form of hate speech. The Israeli media invariably use the word “capitalism” in conjunction with the word piggish. (Ironically, the one exception is the business editor of Haaretz, who supports market capitalism, while the rest of the same newspaper yearns for communism.)
我怀疑因人身侵害被逮捕的人如果宣称受害人称其为资本主义者，他也许能让自己被当庭释放。称人为资本主义者算得上一种仇恨言论。以色列媒体一成不变的把“资本主义”这个词和贪婪一词搭配使用。（讽刺的是，有个例外是Haaretz的商业编辑，他支持市场资本主义，然而同一份报纸的其他同仁们则痴迷于共产主义。）
The only conceivable form of market economy in the minds of the Israeli chattering class is “piggish capitalism.” You would not believe the portion of Israeli professors and intellectuals who use that expression. The head of the Histadrut, Israel’s largest organized crime family, uses it, being a loyal believer in piggish communism.
有话语权的以色列中产们头脑中能够想象的市场经济的唯一形式是“贪婪的资本主义”。你甚至难以相信以色列教授和知识分子中使用这个词的比例。以色列最大的有组织犯罪集团【译者注：一个工团组织】Histadrut的领袖，也用着这个词，充当着贪婪的社会主义的忠实信徒。
In normal countries, pointing out that someone is a card-carrying member of the communist party is usually more than enough to discredit that person. Not in Israel. Carriers of communist party membership cards do so with pride. Most of the members of the history department at Tel Aviv University are such communists. So are oodles of other academics.
在正常国家，指出某人是共产党的活跃成员常常意味着对此人的侮辱。但在以色列不是这样。共产党的活跃分子骄傲的公开身份。大多数特拉维夫大学历史系的成员是共产主义分子。其他学术机构也有大批类似现象。
On the one hand, the operation of markets is what makes Israel a successful viable country, one incidentally that experienced almost no implosion at all during the global financial collapse of the past 4 years. But on the other hand, markets are things Israelis claim they want suppressed. Literate Israelis insist in unison that markets are what is wrong with the world, and suppressing markets is the answer to Israel’s problems. Markets are evil, rewarding selfishness. Benevolent governmental bureaucrats controlling the economy are what is needed.
一方面，市场运作使以色列成为一个成功的有活力的国家，而且在全球金融崩溃的过去四年中，它几乎没有受到一点影响。但另一方面，市场是以色列人宣称想要压制的那类事物。以色列的智识阶层一致坚持市场导致了世界的种种问题，而压制市场则是解决以色列各种问题的答案。市场是邪恶的，鼓励自私的。善意的政府官僚管制经济是必需的。
Not every Israeli, mind you. Russian-Israelis, who today are maybe a fifth of the population, have no patience for those preaching the wonders of communism. And they are notably absent in the current “social justice” rallies and marches, or what I have been calling the Woodstock along the Yarkon Festival.
并不是每个以色列人都这么。俄罗斯以色列人，如今也许占到人口的五分之一，对鼓吹共产主义奇迹的人没有耐心。他们明显地缺席当下各种“社会正义”的集会游行，或者被我称为雅孔河边的伍德斯托克狂欢的Yarkon 节会【编注：雅孔河是以色列主要河流，流经行政首府特拉维夫，河边常有集庆】。
Orthodox Jews rarely mouth the slogans of nostalgia for Bolshevik central planning of markets, although there are exceptions. (The commentator on the Torah portion in Maariv cannot get enough of communism and insists that suppressing piggish-capitalism is the highest form of Jewish ethics.)
正统派犹太教徒很少装腔作势的唠叨那些对布尔什维克中央计划经济心存怀旧之情的口号，虽然也有例外。（晚报Torah板块的评论员宣扬起共产主义总是没个够，并坚持认为压制贪婪资本主义是犹太伦理的最高形式。）
Israeli academics are almost universally anti-capitalism. I am on the list of a chat list of Israeli social science faculty members, and for the past few weeks it has carried hundreds of postings yearning for socialist controls and denouncing capitalism. The posteurs universally fantasize about Israel adopting Scandinavian-style “socialism.”
以色列学术界也几乎普遍地反资本主义。我本人被列在以色列社会科学教职人员的聊天通讯录上，过去几周，我从这个联系列表上收到了几百份向往社会主义管制和批评资本主义的传单。这些传单全是鼓吹把以色列改造成斯堪迪纳维亚式“社会主义”的狂想。
Putting aside some doubts as to how pleasant life really is in Scandinavia (witness Norway recently), Scandinavian “socialism” is actually not. It is essentially free markets mixed with very high tax rates and a gargantuan welfare state providing cradle-to-grave welfare services at state expense.
先不提一些疑问：斯堪迪纳维亚的生活是否真正那么快活（看看最近的挪威），斯堪迪纳维亚式“社会主义”其实并不美好。它其实是自由市场制度混合了极高的税率和从摇篮到坟墓的繁多福利，这些福利由政府提供和付费。
In other words, Scandinavia has always been far more capitalistic countries than Israel, certainly of Israel was before the 1980s. In addition, Israel has always provided Scandinavian-style welfare state services, but without the freeing of markets and liberalization of production that characterized Scandinavia.
换句话说，斯堪迪纳维亚国家其实一直比以色列更接近资本主义，特别是比80年代以前的以色列。而且，以色列已经提供了斯堪迪纳维亚式的政府福利，但却没有斯堪迪纳维亚特征的市场自由化和生产力解放。
Academic economists generally do not join the antlered herds in pining for bolshevism, but there are exceptions. Israeli economists are among the few who know what a market is, what a price is, what a wage is. The protesters never know these things.
学术界的经济学家们总的来说没有加入坚持布尔什维克主义的群落，但也有些例外。以色列经济学家位列少数知道什么市场，什么是价格，什么是工资的人当中。抗议者则从来不知道这些东西是什么。
But Israel has a long history of academic prostitution and one can always find a few academic economists willing to endorse the most idiotic “ideas” of those who understand nothing about economics, if it earns them a shekel or advances their careers.
但是以色列的学术婊源远流长，你总能发现几个经济学家愿意为那些根本不懂经济的人的愚蠢“理念”背书，只要这能够带给他们经济利益或改善其职业前途。
Hence the most passionate supporter of RAISING the minimum wage is “economist” Avishai Braverman, the guy who turned Ben Gurion University into Hamastan, and one can find similar cases of street-walking economists endorsing rent controls, nationalizations, and other fundamental axioms of economic Bolshevism.
所以提高最低工资的最热忱支持者是“经济学家”Avishai Braverman。该人让本·古里安大学变成了反以色列的先锋。你也可发现类似的例子，如一些站街经济学家支持租金管制、国有化、和一些基本的布尔什维克主义经济原则。
Most people are not aware of it but Israel began its existence as a country with a system of Bolshevik central control. In its first years Ben Gurion implemented a system of massive nationalization and near-universal price and wage controls. It differed little from the economic structure created by Lenin.
尽管大部分人没有意识到，但是以色列国从建国伊始，便拥有一个布尔什维克主义的中央计划系统。在立国的头十年，本·古里安实现了一个系统，来进行大规模国有化和几乎全面的价格及工资管制。 这几乎和列宁创建的经济系统没有区别。
Ben Gurion got away with it for a while because of the War of Independence and the national emergency. Like in that old joke about how communism in the Sahara would produce a shortage of sand, by the early 1950s everything in Israel was in shortage, buying anything and everything involved endless Soviet-style queues, and most products could only be obtained in the black markets.
由于立国战争和全国紧急状态，本·古里安曾一度逃脱了共产主义的诅咒。如那个撒哈拉的共产主义怎样能让沙子产生短缺的笑话一样【注：米尔顿·弗里德曼曾说：假如你把撒哈拉交给政府经营，我们很快会面临沙子短缺】，在50年代早期，以色列的一切物资都陷于短缺。购买任何一切东西都免不了无尽的苏联式排队，而且大部分产品只能够在黑市里弄到。
To Ben Gurion’s credit, he realized by the early 1950s that the system of Bolshevik controls was unworkable. Curiously, Lenin had also understood this and took steps to dismantle the controls, except that he died and was replaced by Stalin before serious reform took place in the Soviet Union. Lenin called his plan for partial de-Bolshevikation of the economy the “New Economic Plan” or NEP, exactly the SAME name adopted by Ben Gurion for HIS reforms in the early 1950s. (No coincidence!)
本·古里安的功劳是，他在1950年代早期认识到布尔什维克计划经济行不通。令人奇怪的是，列宁也曾认识到这点，并采取了放松管制的措施，只是他去世了，而斯大林在任何深度改革实施之前就接管了权力。列宁把他的部分去布尔什维克经济计划称作“新经济计划”（New Economic Plan，NEP），和本·古里安在50年代早期实施的改革计划的名称一模一样。（这可不是巧合！）
While most price controls were ended, other forms of economic Bolshevism were retained by Ben Gurion and his MAPAI party comrades. Huge portions of Israeli industry were nationalized, and much of what was left was semi-nationalized and grossly mismanaged by turning it over to the Histadrut trade union federation.
尽管大多数价格管制被终结了，其他布尔什维克主义的经济措施则仍被本·古里安和他的工党同志们保留了下来。当时以色列工业的很大比例被国有化，而剩下部分中很多被半国有化，而且把这些企业交给Histadrut工团照管造成了严重的经营不善。
Economic policy sought to suppress competition everywhere. It strived to maximize the number of monopolies and cartels in the economy. The government controlled enormous amounts of resources, which it handed out as political favors, often to cronies and party oligarchs. Tax rates were enormous and sometimes exceed 100%. Profits by enterprises were derived mainly from government subsidies and handouts.
经济政策曾试图在所有地方抑制竞争，它努力要最大程度的增加经济中垄断和卡特尔组织的数目。政府曾控制了巨量资源，并按政治偏好进行分配，这些资源常流向亲信和寡头。那时税率极高，有时甚至超过100%。企业利润曾主要依靠政府补贴和帮扶。
Government policy was protectionist and anti-competitive. The capital market was suppressed and nationalized. The government’s working philosophy demanded that Israelis essentially turn all their income, savings, and wealth over to the government, and then the government bureaucracy would take care of the needs of the public and of citizens.
政府政策曾非常偏向保护主义和抑制竞争，资本市场则被抑制和国有化。政府的工作哲学要求以色列人实际上把他们所有的收入、储蓄和财富交给政府照管，然后政府官僚将会照顾公共和公民的所需。
The result was a Third World economy, albeit one dominated by a political system that actually involved elections and parliamentary processes. Israel was pauperized by the Bolshevism. It remained poor and underdeveloped.
结果就是，尽管被一个拥有选举和代议程序的政治体系所统治，经济上却仍是第三世界。以色列被共产主义弄的赤贫。而后也仍然贫困落后。
Things only began to change in a significant manner in the 1970s. Israel was being coerced into liberalizing its economy and removing some of the socialist controls because of Israel joining and signing various international trade agreements. The treaty partners refused to allow the Israeli government to continue its policies. The long period of zero growth following the Yom Kippur War also woke some people up to the necessity of having a functional economy.
70年代，事情才开始明显转变。以色列在那时被强制要求经济自由化，并除去一些社会主义管制，因为它需要加入和签署一些国际贸易协定。缔约国拒绝允许以色列政府继续其政策。在赎罪日战争后的长时期零增长，也让一些人意识到亟需一个能够有效运转的经济。
In the 1950s and 1960s it was not unusual for people to lump Israeli economic policies and conditions together with those in Egypt and other Third World backwaters.
在50和60年代，人们把以色列的经济政策和状况混同于埃及和其他死气沉沉的第三世界并不奇怪。
Things changed remarkably starting in the 1980s. Most of the nationalized industry was privatized, largely because state enterprises were losing so much money. Partly, this was due to the change in public willingness to tolerate the controls. Partly it was because of the growing number of people who had taken freshmen economics and understood the idiocy of Bolshevik controls. Partly, it was because of the growth of high tech, which the government could not control or understand. Partly, it was because of international trade treaty pressures.
直到80年代开始，情况才开始发生显著改变。大多数国有企业被私有化了，很大程度上因为国有企业的亏损如此之巨。部分地是因为容忍管制的公众意愿改变了。部分是因为越来越多的人受了基本经济学教育，并理解了布尔什维克管制的愚蠢。部分是因为高科技产业的发展，而政府并不能理解或者控制这些产业。部分是因为国际贸易压力。
There are still plenty of Bolshevik controls in place. Israel has a single-payer health system with four tightly regulated HMO-style providers. It works a lot better than you would expect, for some extraneous reasons (Israel has a young population that eats well and huge numbers of MDs).
目前仍有很多的布尔什维克管制。以色列拥有一个政府全包的医疗系统和四个被严密管制的医疗保险集团。因为一些外部因素，该系统运作的比你预期的好得多（以色列拥有年轻的人口结构，饮食健康，医生数量也很多。）
There are still oodles of monopolies and cartels. Agriculture is still largely anti-competitive and inefficient, dominated by government-erected cartels. Taxes are too high. The government owns a large portion of the land in the country. Some sectors are still distorted by protectionism, especially food.
目前仍然存在很多垄断和卡特尔。农业仍然被政府设立的卡特尔控制，很大程度上是反竞争和低效的。税率太高。在国内，政府拥有很大比例的土地。一些部门仍被保护主义扭曲，尤其是食物。
The Woodstock on the Yarkon protesters are by and large leftist secularist Israelis demanding a return to the Bolshevik controls of the 1950s. They pine for the shortages and the rationing of that era because they figure that in a shortage THEY will be granted priority.
在Yarkon节日嘉年华上的抗议者完全就是要求回到50年代布尔什维克管制的左派世俗主义者。他们渴慕那时代的短缺和票证，因为他们觉得在那种短缺中，他们会被优先供给。
The central demand of the protesters is rent controls. This will end up destroying the Israeli housing stock and pauperizing elderly owners of rental property who purchased those units with the intention of earning rental income in their old age. Like in New York and other cities having rent controls, the controls will create shortages, where the true cost of obtaining rental housing actually goes UP, not down.
抗议者的核心诉求是租金管制。这最终会破坏以色列的房屋供给，并且让老迈的房东陷入赤贫。这些房东为了收租养老的缘故买了这些房子。如同纽约和其他有租金管制的城市那样，管制会产生短缺，而租到房子的真实成本实际上提高了，而不是降低了。
The protesters pine for the Soviet steppes. They demand other forms of price controls so that Israel can turn into a Brezhnev-era style of country, where people spend their days waiting in lines for commodities in perpetual and growing shortage. They want markets to be suppressed, where squads of social justice commandos can decide who gets to live in which apartment, who gets to consume those commodities in shortage, and who earns what.
抗议者们仍怀念着苏联的大平原。他们要求其他形式的价格管制，让以色列回到如勃涅日涅夫时代那样的国家。在那里有无尽的日益增长的短缺，人们为了购物整日排队。他们希望市场被抑制，而社会公正的斗士们有权决定谁搬进哪一个公寓，谁消费短缺中的那些商品，谁赚得什么。
They insist that wages be set based on what the protesters think people deserve to earn. Since there is not a single person in Israel who earns what he thinks he deserves to earn, this amounts to a demand for a Soviet-style wage board that fixes wages for all professions, starting with those who are on strike, like the MDs.
他们坚持说工资要基于抗议者认为人们理应挣多少而设定。因为在以色列没有任何人挣着自认为理应得到的数目，这就导致需要一个苏式工资系统，对所有职业设定固定工资，从罢工的人群开始，比如医生们。
In other words, wages in the opinion of the protesters do not have to clear markets and signal where shortages and surpluses are. Wages should be arbitrary measures of “fairness.” Try to imagine just what happens when half the jobs in Israel attract no applicants because the fair wages there are insufficient to draw workers, while the other jobs have six applicants for each position because the fair wages there are much too high to clear the market. Try to imagine what life would be like if a Marxist sociologist or a caring social worker were appointed as economic dictator to decide all economic matters and decisions in Zion.
另一方面，抗议者认为工资没必要让市场均衡并发挥信号作用，以显示何处短缺，何处过剩。工资应该是“公平”的武断标准。试想以色列有一半职位都不能吸引到申请者，因为所谓的公平工资不能够吸引工人，而同时以色列的另外一半工作每个职位有六个申请人，因为所谓的公平工资远高于市场均衡水平，将会发生什么?试想一个马克思主义社会学家或一个慈善社工被任命为经济独裁者，来负责锡安的所有经济事务和决策，会发生什么？
Every society on earth and every society in human history has people living in hardship and in poverty. There are poor people in all countries, including Scandinavia. Mankind has not discovered an innovation that eliminates poverty and hardship.
地球上的每个社会，乃至人类历史上每个社会，都有生活在艰难困苦中的人们。所有的国家都有穷人，包括斯堪迪纳维亚。人类尚未能发现一种创新，能消灭贫穷和困苦。
Yet the caring dreamers about Bolshevism along Rothschild Boulevard in Tel Aviv (note the irony of the name) demand an instant magic pill that will eliminate all hardship and inequality. And the failure of the government to provide one is proof that the evil “tycoons” are in charge and preventing the government from serving the people.
然而，和布尔什维克主义相关的爱心白日梦人士沿着特拉维夫的罗斯柴尔德大道（请注意这街名的讽刺性）要求一个立即奏效的神奇药方，来消除贫穷和困苦。而政府没能提供这个药方，则是邪恶的“权贵”在掌权并阻止政府服务人民的证据。
“People not profits” is the slogan of choice used by those who are too stupid to understand that the only way to make producers serve the people and produce things the people want is for them to make profits doing so. Outlaw profits and you create mass starvation.
让厂商服务人民和创造人民需要的产品的唯一途径是让他们借此获得利润，而太蠢不能理解这点的人们则打出了“为人民而不是为利润”的口号。取缔利润，那么你就创造了大饥荒。
The tycoon fetish continues to dominate the protests. I have suggested that Mikey Lerner even change the name of his idiotic magazine from Tikkun to Tycoon. Many Israeli tycoons, at least outside high-tech, were made tycoons because of sweetheart deals with the political establishment, particularly back in the days of MAPAI socialism.
权贵迷信继续主导着这些抗议。我已经建议Mikey Lerner把他白痴杂志的名字从改正（Tikkun ）改为权贵（Tycoon ）。很多以色列的权贵，至少在高科技产业之外，是被政治既得利益者的幕后交易创造出来的，尤其是回溯到工党社会主义时期。
The other irony is that the only “reform” the protesters have extracted from Netanyahu is the setting up of “Planning Speed-up Commissions.” And the most ironic part of this irony is that the main effect of those commissions will be to fatten up the “tycoons.”
更讽刺的是，抗议者从内塔尼亚胡那里得到的唯一“改革”就是设立一些“规划加速委员会”。并且这一讽刺的最尖锐的部分是：这些委员会的主要作用将是让“权贵”脑满肠肥。
Israel’s municipal planning and regulation of construction is a fever swamp of corruption and inefficiency. It takes two years to get a license to put windows in your porch and you may have to bribe city officials to get it. The endless bureaucratic pencil pushing and bickering does indeed slow down construction, affecting housing prices and availability.
以色列的建筑业市政规划管理部门是腐败和低效的温床。给你的门廊加上窗户需要两年时间办理许可证，而你可能不得不贿赂市政官员来拿到它。无穷的官僚系统的文书案牍和磨嘴皮的确减慢了建筑业发展，影响了房屋的价格和供给。
At the same time, these planning dinosaurs DO allow a certain amount of public involvement and intervention, especially when it comes to combating corrupt sweetheart dirty deals between municipalities and construction contractor “tycoons.” Corrupt municipal officials are constantly attempting to get approval for construction projects that will enrich contractor cronies, even when these are illegal, harmful to the public interest, ugly, and in some case built on public park lands and beaches. The officials attempt to bend zoning laws and regulations to “help their buddies.”
同时，这些计划经济恐龙允许一定的公共介入和干涉，尤其是人们反对市政机构和有背景的建筑承包商之间的内幕交易的时候。腐败的市政官员一直试图为建筑项目拿到许可，这些项目可以让有关系的承包商致富，即使它们是非法可耻的，有害公共利益的，而且有时是在公园和公共海滩上建造。这些官员试图扭曲法律和规制，来“帮助他们的兄弟”。
As a sop to the demonstrators, Netanyahu has proposed and the Knesset just passed the creation of “Planning Speed-Up Commissions,” to cut through the red tape and bureaucracy. The problem with the idea is simple: it will still take two years and possibly some bribes if you want to put a window pane on your porch.
作为对示威者的安抚，内塔尼亚胡提出了创建一些“规划加速委员会”，议会批准了这个动议，想要削减繁文缛节和官僚主义。这个主意的缺陷很明了：未来如果你想要在自己的门廊上开一扇窗，还是需要两年，也许还要一些贿赂。
But the oligarchs will be able to use the Speed Up mechanism to push aside public opposition and suppress sensible zoning and planning regulations. The oligarchs are also being offered by Netanyahu public lands at below-market prices, where Netanyahu insists this will lower housing prices. The reality, as any freshman econ student can tell you, is that it will not lower housing prices by a shekel, and instead will only inflate the profits of the cronies getting in on the deal.
但寡头们将能用加速机制来置公众抗议于不顾，压制合理的区域规划和管制。寡头也能够拿到内塔尼亚胡提供的低于市场价的公地，内塔尼亚胡坚称这能降低房价。就如任何经济系一年级学生能告诉你的那样，事实是这不会让房价降低一个子儿，反倒会增加参与项目的关系户公司的利润。
ABOUT STEVEN PLAUT
关于作者
Steven Plaut is a native Philadelphian who teaches business finance and economics at the University of Haifa in Israel. He holds a PhD in economics from Princeton. He is author of the David Horowitz Freedom Center booklets about the Hamas and Jewish Enablers of the War against Israel.
Steven Plaut是一位土生土长的费城人。他在以色列的海法大学教授商务金融和经济学。他拥有普林斯顿经济学博士学位。他是David Horowitz自由中心的作者，撰写了一些小册子，讲述哈马斯和一些犹太人积极促成针对以色列的战争。
翻译：Tankman
校对：hkustliqi
编辑：辉格@whigzhou