Chronic economic problems threaten Israel’s national survival.
- oligopolistic businesses
- militant labor unions
- huge unaccountable government bureacracies
- a strong leftist ethos with a belief in big government
- inflated costs
- high unemployment
- low productivity
- slow real wage growth
- poverty remains widespread
- the young flee
- defence is underfunded.
The Israel Center
for Social & Economic Progress
an independent pro-market
public policy think tank since 1984
Winner of the 2005 Award for Institutional Excellence and the 2006 Templeton Award for Student Outreach
ICSEP facilitates crucial economic reforms and helps overcome resistance to them.
Recognized by the IRS as a charitable organization pursuant to Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code. Tax ID # 13-3129249
.(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
Copyright © 2001-2024
The Israel Center for Social & Economic Progress
“Where there is
no bread,
there is no Torah.”
Pirkei Avot (Ethics of the Fathers)
Contributions made out to Friends of ICSEP can be mailed to:
Fox Associates, 100 Front St., West Conshohocken, PA 19428, USA
Made with Engaging
Log in or Register
“‘Exceptional entrepreneur put Eilat on world tourist map’”
The Jerusalem Post
9 Aug ’11
David Lewis, the exceptional entrepreneur and philanthropist, and head of the Isrotel Group dies at 87
Filed under:
Zionism
David Lewis, the exceptional entrepreneur and philanthropist, head of the Isrotel Group that put Eilat on the world tourist map, is dead at 87.
The Lewis family, and especially David’s wife, Ruth, a woman with a distinguished, kind presence, and David’s children and grandchildren have all enjoyed better, more meaningful lives because of David Lewis. So did the Jewish Community and the English people more generally, Israel and many individuals and institutions in both countries.
David was always a gentleman to the core of his being, a faithful Jew, a courageous and caring human being and modest to a fault.
I have been privileged to enjoy David’s friendship for many years.
My institute, The Israel Center for Social and Economic Progress has been a beneficiary of his largess. He did all he could to help us make Israel economically viable and prosperous.
We met whenever David visited Israel and could take time off from his many duties and preoccupations. There was not one meeting in which the conversation did not extend to the many interests of David’s, whether contemporary or historic, and that did not display his multifaceted and detailed knowledge and strong convictions and values, but above all his care for everything that touched his life, and his warm humanity.
Like his namesake, David was a king and a poet, a supreme leader in getting good works done, whether in business or in charity, a poet in his nuanced understanding of people, in his empathy for them, in the way he got involved in their life, always helping to make it better, to enrich it in many varied ways, material and spiritual.
David was a practical man; look at all that he has built, solidly, in times that were shifting and uncertain, often dangerous. Look at what he did for Eilat – a thriving city now, at the bottom edge of Israel that David transformed from a backwater, struggling to survive, into a gem on Israel’s tourist map. Loot at his pioneering enterprise, the sparkling spa he built on the Carmel range and his newest love, the unique inn “Bereshit” (with its Biblical connotations) on the rim of the majestic Grand Canyon of Israel, the Ramon Crater.
David was a visionary – one would hesitate to call him a dreamer – because unlike even the best of dreamers, he has managed to mostly translate his visions into good works.
And there are so many of them, too many to enumerate because the list is so long and because nothing would have embarrassed David more than praise for his works.
So please forgive us David if after you left us we managed to embarrass you, but it could not be avoided. It is our duty of love to talk in praise of extraordinary people, to hold them up as an example for all and as role models for the young.
Many have loved you deeply, David, because you were the kind of man who evoked love, not only for himself, but for humanity, that you represented so honorably and magnificently.
More recent commentary
The Jerusalem Post
30 Jun ’15
Reforms – Prospects and Impediments
Israel’s last elections proved how right David Ben-Gurion was when he said that, in Israel, whoever does not believe in miracles is not a realist.
PJ Media
20 Jun ’15
Israel’s Internal Challenges
The security challenges facing Israel obscure other deep concerns about the viability of Israel’s economic system.
The Jerusalem Post
7 Jun ’14
Will corruption undo Israel?
Unless the laggard Israeli economy is reformed soon, its problems—including its morally debilitating corruption—may threaten its future.
Israel Hayom
15 May ’14
Olmert isn’t alone
What does it say about Israeli society and the system of government when a prime minister is convicted of taking bribes?
Israel Hayom
23 Feb ’14
Lower education?
What kind of education should it offer and at what cost?
The Jerusalem Post
9 Jan ’14
Whither Israel: Welfarism or growth?
The productivity of Israeli workers is only two-thirds that of Americans, and their salaries are much lower.
The Jerusalem Post
11 Jul ’13
A stellar example
As he completes an exceptionally difficult 8-year tour of duty during a worldwide financial crisis, Stanley Fischer has achieved a unique status.
The Weekly Standard
7 Jun ’13
The dilemma plaguing Israel’s gas bonanza
When Israel finally discovered a bonanza of natural gas about five years ago everyone was happy. But then fierce arguments broke out—and rightly so.
The Weekly Standard
22 Apr ’13
Land of Economic Miracles
The economic future of Israel now rests in the hands Netanyahu, Lapid and Bennet. Will they succeed in fulfilling the most difficult and complex mission of liberating Israel’s economy?
Israel Hayom
2 Jan ’13
Profiting from poverty
The Israeli government could eradicate poverty by breaking the monopolies and spurring competition.
The Jerusalem Post
7 Dec ’12
The dark side of foreign aid
Our socialist and statist heritage bred our inefficient system. But foreign aid and remittances were serious enablers. The struggle against political and economic concentration could finally permit Israelis to overcome this destructive heritage.
Israel Hayom
8 Nov ’12
Prepare for the economic storm
The time to prepare the reforms is now, so that after the Israeli elections, the prime minister can immediately devote his time to moving them forward.
The Financial Times
21 Jun ’12
Reform in Israel
Israel Hayom
6 Jun ’12
Saving Israel from the Euro crisis
To grapple with the impending crisis, Israel’s government must improve the nation’s competitiveness.
The Jerusalem Post
7 May ’12
Netanyahu’s tough challenge
The Wall Street Journal
3 May ’12
The crony system that makes Israelis poorer
Reform-minded Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is stymied by bureaucrats and monopoly tycoons.
Middle East Quarterly
30 Mar ’12
Free markets can transform the Middle East
As the high hopes for a brave new Middle East fade rapidly, Western policymakers must recognize that promoting market economics and its inevitable cultural changes are far more critical to the region’s well-being than encouraging free elections or resolving the Arab-Israeli conflict.
The Jerusalem Post
17 Feb ’12
Social justice or a market economy?
The choice is between an efficient, growth-inducing market economy or a welfare state, meaning a huge government that actually harms the poor and inhibits prosperity.
The Jerusalem Post
25 Oct ’11
Capitalism is in crisis, but why?
Aversion toward the rich has had strong roots in Zionism since its early leaders embraced Marxist practices.
Is capitalism in crisis? Of course.
The Jerusalem Post
10 Aug ’11
Do we need another Greece?
The tent-dwellers’ revolt calls for the enforcement of ‘the will of the people’ (like all autocrats). It refuses to rely on Democracy.
The Jerusalem Post
20 Jul ’11
As the revolution marches on
Although MKs appear concerned over rising costs, it was they who allowed this injustice to occur in the first place.
The Jerusalem Post
28 Jun ’11
It’s not just cottage cheese, it’s everything
Who is to blame for the shameful situation in which millions of Israeli workers – who earn about half what American workers earn – have to pay double for goods?
The New Republic
19 May ’11
Economic miracle
A Middle East peace strategy that could actually work.
The Jerusalem Post
15 Mar ’11
The government-tycoons-media triangle
Israel needs to slash its state budget by as much as possible if it wants a chance at fighting waste and corruption.
The Jerusalem Post
9 Mar ’11
Welfare and rebellion: The economic factor in the Arab uprisings
Too little attention has been paid to how Egypt’s socialist past and welfare-state present shaped the current rebellion.
The Jerusalem Post
7 Feb ’11
Is all quiet on the economic front?
The Herzliya Conference has become an important international event, but one central issue is absent: Israel’s debilitating economic concentration.
The Jerusalem Post
22 Jan ’11
Teaching an elephant to dance
It’s highly unlikely that government can ever learn to make long-term plans and execute them efficiently.
The Jerusalem Post
23 Dec ’10
Hellenization and Enlightenment: Post-Hanukka ruminations
How can one dare compare narrow-minded religion with the all-embracing faith of universality and equality that is socialism?
The Jerusalem Post
1 Dec ’10
Would Milton Friedman have approved?
Many of the social and economic troubles we are experiencing are due to the public’s lack of understanding of the need for economic literacy.
The Jerusalem Post
17 Oct ’10
Perverting public discourse
The PM’s courageous decision to tackle economic concentration was misrepresented by several of our media publications—owned of course by tycoons.
The Wall Street Journal
8 Oct ’10
Breaking Israel’s monopolies
Economic concentration hurts the country’s viability and the chances for peace.
The Jerusalem Post
4 Oct ’10
Israel’s progress undermined
A damaging ethos of ‘welfarism’ and distributive politics has come to dominate not only academia but our cultural, military and even our business elites.
The Jerusalem Post
19 Aug ’10
Unable to decide
The reformers must know the importance of the reform’s success both for Israel and for their careers, and what damage they will incur if it fails.
The Jerusalem Post
13 Jul ’10
Elana Kagan, terrorism and the law
Kagan’s admiration for Justice Aharon Barak’s philosophy may have revealed her own predilection for radical judicial activism.
The Jerusalem Post
30 May ’10
Yes, break them up
We must dismantle the oligarch-owned monopolies that impoverish the Israeli consumer and choke our economy.
The Wall Street Journal
18 May ’10
Land of silicon and money
The OECD’s invitation to Israel is a “seal of approval” but the country still needs more reforms.
The Jerusalem Post
10 Feb ’10
The surprise of it all
The world’s astonishment at Israel’s response to the Haiti disaster is insulting. What we saw there was Israel’s true face.
The Jerusalem Post
10 Jan ’10
Hi-tech prospects and pitfalls
Individual initiative and freedom are essential for creativity—in hi-tech as in all other spheres.
The Jerusalem Post
14 Oct ’09
A woman who knew her worth
As far as Rose Friedman was concerned, public kudos did not matter that much. She persisted in being a rose, no matter what.
The Jerusalem Post
22 Sep ’09
Movies in Nablus, dramas in Bethlehem
Lasting peace must grow from the bottom up, from an “economic peace process” that proves what advantages peace has to offer on a daily basis. It cannot come from signing peace agreements with radical and corrupt entities propped up by corrupting Western handouts.