A "Must Read" – Terminal Threat to Israel: An Economic Perspective

"Money Time in Israel" by Prof. Dan Ben David

21/03/2024 10:02

Tags: ultra-Orthodox ·  Dan Ben David

Jerusalem's Navon rail station, on the day of a major protest last year. photo: Tomer Appelbaum, Haaretz

“The hypocrisy of an exponentially increasing population group that insists on receiving the benefits of a modern society – from health care through welfare to defense – while themselves refusing to shoulder any of its underlying costs and burdens has run its course."

Prof. Dan Ben David is a leading economist who has been monitoring and measuring for years the destructive economic consequences of the alliance between religion and politics in Israel. However, his latest article reflects a sense of extreme urgency beyond what he has previously written. It is a must-read article for anyone who has the good of the State of Israel in mind and understands the importance of facts and figures rather than the cynical political rhetoric characterizing many of our leaders from the right, center and left when they have been in power.

Ben David’s analyzes are unique: they are anchored in many years of tracking the relevant data and significant trends. His data pinpoints the deterioration of key social and national interests as a result of the unholy alliance between religion and politics, which continues to endanger the future of the State of Israel.

The government's steps sabotage the State's economy and well-being, as well as the ability of the ultra-Orthodox sector to subsist economically

The government's steps (namely, expansion of the scope and financing of ultra-Orthodox schools networks of ultra-Orthodox parties that refuse to teach core curricular studies to boys) lead in a direction which is opposite to the necessary solution. This sabotages the State's economy and well-being, as well as the ability of the ultra-Orthodox sector to subsist economically, without relying on extraordinary subsidies from the taxpayers' coffers. So are the ongoing political efforts to perpetuate their mass exemption from military and civil service, especially as we hear their leadership threatening to emigrate from the country if their army-aged youth are required to enlist and participate in shouldering the security burden.

In his article, Ben David writes: "...The terminal future described above is not set in stone – though the ability to avoid it is rapidly diminishing from year to year. Overcoming the unimaginable trauma of this past year requires not only the immediate removal of the cynical hypocrites in government who led us to this point, but also a clear-eyed ability to distinguish between the wheat and the chaff from among the torrent of ideas pouring in from every interested party when the time comes to determine policy on the day after."