Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Yigal Levin <Yigal-Levin AT utc.edu>]

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At 10:53 AM 8/2/2002 +0200, Jonathan D. Safren wrote:
>Ha'aretz - Article
>
>Ha'aretz Daily Newspaper
>Friday, August 02, 2002 Av 24, 5762Israel Time:  10:41  (GMT+3)
>
>Only one economic program can save us
>
>By Nehemia Strasler
>
>
>
>
>"What is needed is a conservative, responsible policy that can increase
>growth and employment in 2003," senior Finance Ministry officials told
>cabinet members this past week in a campaign to convince the government to
>support the treasury's new cutback program. The program deserved support,
>and the government did the right thing in approving it, since it is a rescue
>plan designed to prevent the economy from sliding into an Argentine-style
>financial crisis. At the same time, the program is not a plan capable of
>shifting the Israeli economy from its current crisis to a rosy horizon of
>growth and a lower unemployment rate.
>
>It should be pointed out that there is no economic program on earth that
>could prevent the deep economic crisis toward which Israel is heading. The
>economic situation is steadily worsening. The hotels are miraculously
>holding on, the building contractors are recycling their debts with the
>banks without any clear idea as to how they will ever repay those loans, the
>self-employed are facing the prospect of a deep credit freeze that might
>force them either to downsize their economic activities or to shut down
>their businesses altogether, and the country's major companies are reducing
>operations and laying off staff. Given this situation, the unemployment rate
>is steadily climbing.
>
>If we took a close look at the press releases received by a single
>journalist during a single working day, we would discover an entire series
>of doomsday messages: the Israel Export Institute reports a 20-percent drop
>in the export of manufactured goods to the European Union; the Israeli
>Association of Plastic and Rubber Manufacturers announces that the first
>half of 2002 was the worst first-half period in a decade, with 400 layoffs,
>a four-percent dip in sales and an eight-percent slump in exports; the
>Central Bureau of Statistics reports that hotel accommodations in the first
>half of the year dropped by 13 percent compared to the first half of 2001
>and by 37 percent compared to the same period in 2000.
>
>Our international stature has never been worse. The Israel Philharmonic
>Orchestra was forced to cancel a concert tour in the United States and, a
>month ago, 360 members of youth orchestras and dance troupes had to unpack
>their bags because the organizers of a festival in Cyprus told them that
>they were not welcome. Israeli physicians and scientists are given icy
>receptions at international conferences. Cyprus was unwilling to host the
>Maccabi Haifa soccer club and only massive pressure led to a reversal of
>that decision. The response of Moshe Teomim, owner of Hapoel Tel Aviv: "The
>problem is only going to get worse. We are losing a large portion of the
>moral justification that we used to have, and we are slowly becoming a
>pariah that the world wants to distance itself from."
>
>This situation generates fear and gloomy projections, which will mean that
>the level of the economy's activities will continue to drop over the next
>few months. Similarly, revenue from taxation will continue to shrink. Which
>will, in turn, mean that the Finance Ministry will have no alternative but
>to present an additional program of cutbacks in early 2003 to meet the
>target of a three-percent deficit in the state budget - a precondition that
>must be in place in order to prevent an immediate financial crisis - and the
>next program of cutbacks will be tougher than the present one.
>
>This inevitable process can be stopped only if we place our finger on the
>real problem: The war in the territories and Palestinian terrorism. Israel's
>economy can never hope to recover as long as Palestinian terrorism hits deep
>in the heart of the country. This terrorism leads us to "keep our heads
>down" and causes a slump in business activity, generating yet a further
>slump in our standard of living and a further increase in the unemployment
>rate. However, the Israeli government is feeding the flames. Its answer to
>terrorism is to use more force and more bombs, to eliminate more key
>Palestinian figures, to impose more closures and to deport more
>Palestinians. In carrying out these actions, Israel is not reducing
>Palestinian terrorism; quite the contrary, Israel is merely intensifying it.
>
>Prime Minister Ariel Sharon is not interested in political negotiations with
>the Palestinians. He is not prepared to adopt the Clinton plan, or the Saudi
>plan, or even the latest plan formulated by U.S. President George W. Bush.
>Instead, Sharon is saying he will accept these plans only if certain
>conditions are met - conditions that will only prevent any form of peace
>negotiations. When the other side has no political horizon to look forward
>to, when it has no hope, and when it sees more and more poverty and
>humiliation on its turf, the terrorism will only increase and intensify.
>
>As long as the Israeli public fails to understand - and to internalize - the
>direct link between peace and economics, it will continue to seek miracle
>cures in the wrong places. The impressive economic growth of the mid-90s was
>generated primarily thanks to the Oslo agreement of September 1993, which
>restored hope in our daily lives and channeled to Israel billions of dollars
>from foreign investors - dollars that enabled the economy to enjoy a rapid
>pace of growth and which caused our standard of living to rise and our
>unemployment rate to plunge dramatically.
>
>Thus, the economic program that is really needed, the only economic program
>capable of extricating us from the present crisis, is a political program
>that will restore hope to both nations. This program is possible even today,
>despite the grave security situation. The only problem is that this
>country's leadership lacks the courage to take the risks needed and to
>navigate a new course.
>
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>---
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Dr. Yigal Levin
Dept. of Philosophy and Religion
University of Tennessee at Chattanooga
615 McCallie Avenue
Chattanooga TN 37403-2598
U.S.A.