A Plan to Save Israel From Crumbling in the Next Few Years
Smotrich and Ben-Gvir. Part of the government of destruction, schism and hatred.
Guy Rolnik writes in Haaretz
1. Eugene Kandel
Despair is not a work plan, and more than ever, Israel is in need of a work plan. Prof. Eugene Kandel, whom Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu chose 15 years ago to head the National Economic Council, decided on the eve of Israel’s 76th Independence Day to go public with what has been whispered for months in boards of directors, conference rooms, behind the scenes: On its present trajectory, Israel will not be around to celebrate its centenary.
Kandel knows that in economics, forecasts of 10 and 20, not to mention 25, years are not viable. Not in the United States, not in Sweden and not in the Middle East, which looks like a powder keg that’s liable to explode at any moment. But he’s not so much wearing the prophet’s hat as that of the alarmed and anxious Israeli. And there are plenty of others who are no less alarmed.
As of now, the unusually large foreign currency reserves of the Bank of Israel and the surplus financial assets in foreign currency of the Israeli private sector that are invested in Western countries are security cushions that are postponing the inevitable process in which financial markets anticipate violently developments on the ground. But Kandel knows that all this could be reversed overnight. When a herd of investors, entrepreneurs and workers start to flee, the deterioration is liable to be much more rapid. Not 25 years and not even five. It could happen next year. No one can foresee when that moment will arrive.
A leading and deeply engaged businessman here said he was furious at Kandel’s comments. “Despair of that sort doesn’t help us,” he said, referring to the supreme task that many in the business community see looming ahead of them: getting rid of Benjamin Netanyahu.
Kandel’s acerbic remarks should be viewed differently. It’s not despair, it’s a wake-up call emanating from an anxious Israeli who made aliyah from Russia at the age of 18, obtained a doctorate in economics in the United States, but who instead of remaining in that country, decided to return to Israel, where he raised three daughters, who are now raising his grandchildren here. Kandel has devoted the seven years that have passed since he ceased being Netanyahu’s adviser to efforts to advance the status of the country’s start-up industry internationally; lately he was appointed chairman of the board of the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange. Apart from his work in finance and high-tech, he also has a hand in academia as a professor of economics and finance at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
Between all these endeavors, he encounters on a daily basis three of the fronts that are perturbing decision makers, scientists, economists, investors, politicians and journalists in London, New York, San Francisco and Chicago. Most of them, including those who see themselves as Israel supporters, think we have gone off the deep end, that we are shooting ourselves in the foot, and that we get up in the morning and with our own hands devote ourselves to wrecking the immense achievements that science, technology, entrepreneurship and the public infrastructure that supports them have brought Israel.