Arguably, it has been a lousy week for Israel’s Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu.

Things began to go wrong when he negotiated a deal so that work would not take place on Tel Aviv’s new light railway structure during the Jewish Sabbath. This turned out to be a political agreement to please ultra orthodox Jewish Parliamentarians, which constituency rarely serves in the army, at the expense of soldiers trying to reach bases on time. The public backlash forced Bibi, as he is colloquially known, to transfer responsibility on to another minister.

A few days later, a building site collapsed killing 5 people. As similar tragedies came to light, it has emerged that government has neglected this industry. Contactors get away with murder, while supervisory budgets are frozen.

Amongst all the fury, the release of yet more statistics from the National Institute for Social Security has passed by unnoticed. In my view, they are no less disturbing.

Before continuing, please remember that Israel is enjoying record low levels of unemployment. High tech salaries just keep on rising.

However, it appears that half of all Israelis earn less than 6,500 nis per month, as of the end of 2014 – about US$1,650. If the average monthly wage is around 10,000 nis, then an awful lot of the country’s 8 million citizens are being left behind in the struggle for a better society.

I will leave it for government supporters to explain what is being done about this sad performance. But note, most of the key areas of support for Bibi’s Likud party now lie in the population areas along the Tel Aviv coast line. Here, the average family monthly income before tax is about 25,500 nis. The figure for Jerusalem is about 12,500 nis – over 50% less. For comparison, Haifa’s level is put at 22,901 nis.

I am stunned that such high discrepancies and how they continue unchecked. Whatever happened to the caring society? And given everything, should we really expect anything more substantial from Bibi’s team?