In a U.S. radio interview Sunday, Israeli's Agriculture Minister Yair Shamir condemned the so-called "Milky" protests, in which a young Israeli expat living in Berlin has encouraged others to join him in Germany as a way of avoiding the high financial cost of living in the Jewish state.
Still, Shamir said he understood the frustrations evoked by the protest movement – which he refers to as a "serious phenomenon" – and expressed hope that moves already taken by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government would ease financial hardships for young Israelis in the next two years.
Shamir said Netanyahu's coalition government, in which Shamir is a cabinet minister, has taken note of the campaign and is responding accordingly.
He warned a failure to address the core financial issues could lead to street protests like those in 2011, although he called such a scenario unlikely.
Speaking on "Aaron Klein Investigative Radio" on New York's AM 970 The Answer, Shamir explained his initial reaction to the "Milky" movement: "I pity those who no longer remember the Holocaust and are ready to give away their identity as Israelis and Jews for Israeli pudding."
The campaign began several weeks ago when 25-year-old former Israeli army officer and current Berlin resident Naor Narkis posted on Facebook photos of his grocery receipts, which showed products in Germany were much cheaper than those in Israel.
The Facebook campaign took off, garnering more than 17,000 "likes," after Narkis posted one receipt that showed a popular Israeli chocolate pudding known as Milky sells in Germany for one-third the price in Israel.
Narkis has taken heat for encouraging other young Israelis to enjoy what he says is the good life in Berlin, despite the shadow of the Holocaust there. His campaign has brought attention to the high cost of living in Israel.
Shamir downplayed the actual number of Israelis emigrating to Berlin, with figures showing far more European Jews were moving to Israel than the 3,000 or less per year Israelis transiting the other way.
Still, Shamir said he understood that the so-called Milky movement is "a serious phenomenon in the sense that those young guys are raising the flag: 'We are not happy. We need something.'"
"So I'm taking home or I'm taking to my office the issues of the cost of living," Shamir said. "And we are going to dig again and again and to see what can be done to make the life of the young ones easier."
Asked by Klein whether the mass 2011 protests could return to the streets of Israel, Shamir replied, "If we will not do our job, we will see it again."
He continued: "But I'm telling you that we in the government and in the economic and social cabinet that I'm a member of, we are doing a lot of things in order to address the issues. Unfortunately, it takes longer than we thought in order to release land for building, in order to take the VAT [tax] to zero for a new apartment and first apartment, to enlarge the amount of money that can be allowed to give a mortgage to the young couples."
Shamir said he believes that in 2015 and 2016 "we will start to see the (fruits of the) efforts that we have done in the last two years – 2013 and 2014."
"So I am really hopeful that we will not see those demonstrations, because I hope that there will be good results that this government is putting into the issue," he added.
Listen to Aaron Klein's interview with Shamir below: