Category Archives: ISRAELI WAR = ISRAELI ECONOMIC CRISIS = 50 DAYS OF MASS MURDER IS EXPENSIVE AND HURTS ISRAELIS FUTURES + BDS MOVEMENT GROWS = BOYCOTT + DIVESTMENT + SANCTIONS SUPPORT GROWS

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ISRAELI WAR = ISRAELI ECONOMIC CRISIS = 50 DAYS OF MASS MURDER IS EXPENSIVE AND HURTS ISRAELIS FUTURES + BDS MOVEMENT GROWS = BOYCOTT + DIVESTMENT + SANCTIONS SUPPORT GROWS

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ISRAELI WAR = ISRAELI ECONOMIC CRISIS = 50 DAYS OF MASS MURDER IS EXPENSIVE AND HURTS ISRAELIS FUTURES + BDS MOVEMENT GROWS = BOYCOTT + DIVESTMENT + SANCTIONS SUPPORT GROWS

Click for Israeli Author’s view of Israeli Economy after the MASS MURDER on The Real News Network

Israel Facing Major Economic Consequences for 50 Day War on Gaza interview of Shir Hever on The Real News by Charming Peries Sept 15, 2014

Political Economist Shir Hever of the Alternative Information Center says the latest conflict with Gaza began after a crisis emerged in Israel over the defense budget.

Shir Hever is an Israeli citizen and economic researcher for Alternative Information Center, a Palestinian-Israeli organization. His first book: Political Economy of Israel’s Occupation: Repression Beyond Exploitation, was published by Pluto Press:

SHARMINI PERIES, EXEC. PRODUCER, TRNN: The 50 day war on PALESTINIANS in Gaza cost Israeli tremendously. Shir, shed some light on what’s going on in terms of the debates within Israel about the cost of this war.

SHIR HEVER, ECONOMIST, ALTERNATIVE INFORMATION CENTER: Israel is in a crisis of standard of living = Accumulated over many years = MANY Israelis are protesting vigorously against the drop in income (stagnating economy) while the cost of living is going up sharply.

HEVER: Big political parties in the government have made promises to try to improve the situation. Amazingly, the public debate in Israel seems to have forgotten this debate because of the MURDERS OF PALESTINIANS.

HEVER: The poor Standard of living debate was a very heated argument between the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Defense about cutting the defense budget.

FACT = Israel spends the HIGHEST PERCENTAGE on defense of All Developed Countries in the World.

HEVER: This heavy DEFENSE burden hits hard on the population. Attempts to cut down the cost of the military always has the army threaten they’re not able to provide Israelis with enough security. Basically scaring the public about various menaces. When it BECAME CLEAR the Ministry of Finance CUTS TO THE MILITARY was going to win = THEN the BOMBING in PALESTINE BEGAN first with operation Brother’s Keeper in the West Bank.

HEVER: BUT Netanyahu wanted to blame Hamas for this escalation. So he diverted the aggression towards Gaza BEGINNING THIS 50 day MURDER OF 2,2OO+ PALESTINIANS = “Protective Edge.” And that ENDED all of the COST OF LIVING debate = Forgotten. Everybody forgets this was all started by the Ministry of Defense to protect THE MILITARY BUDGET. So now the CUTS to the Military are COMPLETELY FORGOTTEN.

PERIES: Is this an opportunity for Israel to get more USA foreign aid?

HEVER: Israel put pressure on USA to give them $100s OF MILLIONS more money for the Iron Dome system. = 100% SUPPORT FROM THE COMPLETELY BRIBED AND INTIMIDATED USA SENATE AND USA kept PROVIDING ammunition to shell civilian neighborhoods.

HEVER: NOW the opposite has happened, because the USA has become concerned ABOUT THE MURDER AND VIOLENCE. BUT USA is very interested in selling its weaponry to Israel to keep the status quo to maintain its hegemony in the region.

HEVER: Israel is spending to much money on too much violence and getting too much international criticism over its actions = Then USA becomes concerned. Obama disallowed a shipment of antitank missiles to the Israeli army, but Hamas has NO tanks so Israel uses those to LEVEL residential buildings, Schools, and Hospitals. So Obama stopped the shipment of these expensive missiles and the Israeli army panic that USA will restrict the kinds of weaponry it’s willing to sell to the Israeli army.

PERIES: What does this WAR do in terms of the Israeli economy and what people are experiencing?

HEVER: Israeli government believes Gaza is a soft target they can just bombard, mow the lawn every couple of years, and also experiment with new Israeli weapons. This has happened the last four attacks of Israel against Gaza. This time, Hamas did not just take it lying down, and fought back, against overwhelming odds, and refused to accept Israeli terms for a ceasefire.

HEVER: Israel demanded a surrender, but Hamas wouldn’t take that option resulting in a 50 day war. = Something the Israeli Government and economy was not prepared for. It affected every aspect of the Israeli economy = Massive economic damage to the areas surrounding the Gaza Strip, where people were afraid to go to the factories, so the factories stopped working. Farms have stopped working as well and produce was not harvested. And there has been a slowdown in the shopping habits of Israelis. There’s been fewer cars being bought, fewer houses being bought. Tourism has taken a very serious hit of 25%. And for 50 days of slowdown of the economy, that has very long term impact on the Israeli economy.

HEVER: In addition the impact of the international boycott movement against Israel = Boycott, divestment, and sanctions = Each time Israel uses so much violence, more and more people joined this movement. = Very large successes for that movement to make the Israeli economy accountable for the crimes committed by the Israeli government and the Israeli army.

HEVER: Add in the cost of the defense budget + Government is trying to meet over 3,000 demands for compensations from Israeli businesses and farms for damage inflicted during the war. But Gov announced a widespread cut that is planned for all of the ministries–health, education, transportation, everything–in order to finance a massive increase in the Ministry of Defense. And that shows that this war has really been unsustainable for the Israeli economy.

PERIES: How are they financing this war?

HEVER: They don’t have a source to finance this war. Borrowing to finance the war would increase Israel’s budget deficit to a level where the Israeli credit rating by international credit rating agency, is certainly going to drop. And that’s something the Israeli government is very worried about, because, of course, if you increase your debt and at the same time your credit rating drops, you’re going to pay a very high interest rate on the debt that you’ve accumulated. And that’s going to mean that a larger part of the Israeli budget is actually going just to pay the interest and to service the debt rather than to provide those services, the public services that are so direly needed.

HEVER: This debt and credit rating issue is very well understood by the general public. And because of that, many Israelis are leaving right after the end of a ceasefire. A poll among young Israelis shows 33% responded that if they have the chance, they would rather leave Israel.

PERIES: Shir, I guess the entire international community is wondering whether the divestment campaign has had any real impact in the Israeli economy. Has it?

HEVER: Every time Israel kills innocent civilians, this motivates a lot of people around the world to join the BDS movement, boycott, divestment, sanctions. Every Israeli knows that BDS is one of the prices the Israeli economy has to pay for their attacks. During this Murderous Operation Protective Edge, there’s been more people joining the BDS movement and more campaigns of the BDS that have been successful than ever before. We’ve seen even cargo ships of the Israeli shipping company, Zim, which were prevented from docking in several ports in North America. And this is something that is very concerning for Israeli companies.

PERIES: Shir, can you give us some specific examples of how the BDS campaign is having effect on the Israeli economy on the ground, in terms of real, everyday life?

HEVER: Most Israeli citizens have a pension plan or an insurance plan, monthly payment from their salary. These are placed with large institutional investors who invest a very large proportion of their money into these massive Israeli corporations that dominate and monopolize the Israeli economy.

HEVER: These same corporations are targeted very effectively by the BDS movement. Some of these corporations or the ownership of these corporations, being so concerned about the BDS movement and the fact that there’s so much criticism, are trying to move their investments outside of Israel and abroad, and they’re doing that very fast. Some have made their shift of investment outside of Israel so fast that they made very bad investment decisions and got almost to the verge of bankruptcy. And that means that every Israeli citizen who’s invested into these corporations through their pension fund or through their insurance scheme suddenly lose money.

HEVER: Israelis and Israeli newspapers, economic newspapers, don’t really like to talk about this. They say it has nothing to do with the War. It’s because of the international financial crisis. But the truth is those companies that are hurt by the BDS movement, holding them accountable for their support of the Israeli government and its crimes, are also the same companies that have the biggest losses.

PERIES: Does the Israeli state have anything to gain financially from reconstructing and redevelopment of Gaza?

HEVER: The biggest voice is Military inside Israel calling on the Israeli government to allow reconstruction of Gaza, to allow the entry of construction materials and so on, so that some of the damage can be eased. This is very surprising, as they are the same people who called for use of maximum force and violence in Gaza, against civilians, half of which are children. Now they’re saying we have to be generous, we have to help them rebuild, we have to help restore them. And the reason is exactly that the defense industry in Israel understands that they need this enemy that they can attack again and again.

HEVER: If the humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza is allowed to unfold and expand, the whole political situation for Israel falls apart with no New attacks. = A BIG Problem for the Israeli military elitists. Israeli military-industrial complex needs enemies, and they tried to use Iran as an enemy. But Iran can defend itself, and because the international political situation doesn’t allow Israel to just willy-nilly attack Iran without provocation.

HEVER: They tried to make Lebanon their enemy and attack Lebanon, but the Hezbollah in Lebanon are actually able to defend Lebanon quite effectively, and in the war of 2006 they delivered a painful humiliation to the Israeli army, which was, again, a war that cost Israel more than the Israeli society and government were willing to absorb.

HEVER: So Gaza remains the perfect soft target to justify the military’s budget and existence. = Gaza is the target that can just attack again and again every two years or so in order to test their weapons and then sell these weapons for profits.

HEVER: I’m not so sure this can continue, because Hamas said there is no sacrifice they’re not willing to make in order to make this difficult for Israel, and they were willing to keep on fighting for 50 days, which is something that nobody expected. And so I think that the profits of these Israeli military-industrial companies are now at risk.