The violent riots in Britain are entirely different from the Israeli summer protest. In Israel the middle class, which bears the main economic and civic burden, is rebelling against the cost of living. In England the most neglected margins of society are rebelling.

The protest leaders in Israel are the sons and daughters of the backbone of society – educated young people in a country where social mobility is greater than is common in the conservative West. In Britain the fire was ignited by impoverished immigrants and minorities and spread to the lower class, which suffers from severe unemployment and profound economic and cultural poverty that is handed down from one generation to the next in Britain’s class-based society. Intercultural and interracial tensions are also playing a significant role in the riots, whose opening volley was apparently the shot that killed the young black man Mark Duggan in Tottenham.

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