Israeli Budget Brawl Shows Gaza War Splintering the Nation
The Netanyahu coalition looks shakier than ever as the country copes with slowing growth and rising unemployment.
Over 100,000 Israelis demonstrated with the hostages’ families in Tel Aviv in June against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, demanding an immediate ceasefire to secure the hostages’ release.
Photographer: Matan Golan/SOPA Images/Zuma Press
Inflation and unemployment are climbing, and gross domestic product is contracting, so tough measures are on the agenda. Israel’s finance minister slashes state subsidies for ultra-Orthodox men and tells them they can no longer spend their days in seminaries studying rabbinical texts. They need to find jobs. Jewish settlers in the occupied West Bank will lose tax benefits, he adds. The crisis requires all Israelis to sacrifice and contribute.
That might sound like something a sensible official today would say. As Israel closes in on a year of war in Gaza, it faces lowered credit ratings, falling exports and the risk of an even deeper economic slump. But those words weren’t uttered recently by anyone in government. They emerged from the lips of Benjamin Netanyahu when he was finance minister 21 years ago as he slashed spending, sold off state-controlled companies and helped turn Israel into a high-tech investment magnet, propelling it into the stratosphere of global wealth.