Israel’s Military Ramp-Up Threatens Another ‘Lost Decade’
Without a politically perilous reallocation of spending, the country risks an exodus of tech investment.
Economists fear war will sap strength from Tel Aviv’s economy.
Photographer: Elena Rostunova/Alamy
It was an intelligence failure most of all: Across the security establishment, there had been the conviction that the enemy next door was deterred. Yes, it’d been observed carrying out military exercises, but it wouldn’t dare attack. Then, as hostile fighters poured into Israel, where soldiers were on home leave for a Jewish holiday, death and destruction mounted rapidly. Israel had to lean on the US for equipment and ammunition. It was a lesson, leaders said, that the country needed to vastly increase military preparedness and spending.
That may sound like Israel today as it fights an unforgiving war against Hamas in Gaza. But it’s in fact an account of the 1973 Yom Kippur War, when Syrian tanks rumbled across the Golan Heights unimpeded. After 18 days of extremely bloody conflict, Israel spent years recalibrating the balance between defense and development.