“Reform in Israel”

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.

The security challenges facing Israel obscure other deep concerns about the viability of Israel’s economic system.

Unless the laggard Israeli economy is reformed soon, its problems—including its morally debilitating corruption—may threaten its future.

What does it say about Israeli society and the system of government when a prime minister is convicted of taking bribes?

What kind of education should it offer and at what cost?

The productivity of Israeli workers is only two-thirds that of Americans, and their salaries are much lower.

As he completes an exceptionally difficult 8-year tour of duty during a worldwide financial crisis, Stanley Fischer has achieved a unique status.

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 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?

The Israeli government could eradicate poverty by breaking the monopolies and spurring competition.

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.

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.

To grapple with the impending crisis, Israel’s government must improve the nation’s competitiveness.

Reform-minded Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is stymied by bureaucrats and monopoly tycoons.

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 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.

Aversion toward the rich has had strong roots in Zionism since its early leaders embraced Marxist practices.
Is capitalism in crisis? Of course.

The tent-dwellers’ revolt calls for the enforcement of ‘the will of the people’ (like all autocrats). It refuses to rely on Democracy.

David Lewis, the exceptional entrepreneur and philanthropist, and head of the Isrotel Group dies at 87

Although MKs appear concerned over rising costs, it was they who allowed this injustice to occur in the first place.

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?

A Middle East peace strategy that could actually work.

Israel needs to slash its state budget by as much as possible if it wants a chance at fighting waste and corruption.

Too little attention has been paid to how Egypt’s socialist past and welfare-state present shaped the current rebellion.

The Herzliya Conference has become an important international event, but one central issue is absent: Israel’s debilitating economic concentration.

It’s highly unlikely that government can ever learn to make long-term plans and execute them efficiently.

How can one dare compare narrow-minded religion with the all-embracing faith of universality and equality that is socialism?

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 PM’s courageous decision to tackle economic concentration was misrepresented by several of our media publications—owned of course by tycoons.

Economic concentration hurts the country’s viability and the chances for peace.

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 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.

Kagan’s admiration for Justice Aharon Barak’s philosophy may have revealed her own predilection for radical judicial activism.

We must dismantle the oligarch-owned monopolies that impoverish the Israeli consumer and choke our economy.

The OECD’s invitation to Israel is a “seal of approval” but the country still needs more reforms.

The world’s astonishment at Israel’s response to the Haiti disaster is insulting. What we saw there was Israel’s true face.

Individual initiative and freedom are essential for creativity—in hi-tech as in all other spheres.

As far as Rose Friedman was concerned, public kudos did not matter that much. She persisted in being a rose, no matter what.

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.