Falafel Joint’s Main Revenue Now From Politicians Eating There To Show Blue-Collar Solidarity

“Not an hour goes by that some aspiring Member of Knesset, mayor, city councilor, or whatever is stopping by to demonstrate he’s in touch with the common folk.”

‘Afula, July 31 – The proprietor of a deep-fried ethnic food establishment in this inland city observed today (Wednesday) that the business’s chief income no longer derives from working-class laborers seeking an affordable, nutritious, convenient meal, but from wealthier, popularity-seeking election campaigners aiming to demonstrate they have the common touch despite their economic advantages.

Itzik Buzaglo, who owns and runs Falafel Itzik with his family, disclosed in an interview this morning that while his original business model assumed his fare would cater to a lower-class and lower-middle-class clientele, recent months have seen a major uptick in a new demographic: politicians eating falafel and other ethnic food in the presence of cameras and social media personnel in an effort to indicate how deeply those political figures feel the plight and appreciate the culture of the comparatively disadvantaged, with an eye toward attracting votes from the same lower-class and lower-middle-class demographics.

“It’s reached the point that those condescending politicians have displaced my original customer base,” noted Buzaglo, who opened his falafel and sabih – a deep-fried eggplant dish – enterprise in 2010. “Not an hour goes by that some aspiring Member of Knesset, mayor, city councilor, or whatever is stopping by to demonstrate he’s in touch with the common folk. They’ll make a big show of bantering with me and my family, pretending to care how we’ve been doing, and having some of my food. Don’t get me wrong, I know my stuff’s good, but this whole charade go old a long time ago.”

Buzaglo explained that the politicians-eating-falafel phenomenon would have slowed earlier this year had incumbent Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu succeeded in forming a governing coalition. “Leading up to the elections in April we got swamped with campaigners,” he recalled. “People who wouldn’t know a deep fryer from a potato ricer flocked here to showcase how much they identify with us, those who have to work for a living or we can’t pay rent. My regular customers got disgusted and started going elsewhere. I was king of hoping things would get back to normal once the elections were over, but now we’ve got another campaign underway until September. It’s an ordeal.”

The father of five, who left work at a different establishment to launch his own business, admitted that he has no choice but to go along with the charade. “What am I going to do, turn down a paying customer?” he asked. “I just want this all to be over so we can go back to seeing politicians’ hypocrisy at a distance instead of in my restaurant.”

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