With more than 10,000 Palestinian deaths (4,100 children and 2,600 women) in the latest aggression against the Gaza Strip, the looming threat of a ground invasion that will destroy everything in its path and a fanaticism reminiscent of the Gaza Strip continues It is bordering on the madness of a minister who calls for the use of the atomic bomb.
This is how Israel seeks to consolidate its power in the Middle East, supported by North American imperialism and a Europe complicit in genocide.
This crime against humanity is linked to a whole range of instruments of hate: Israeli doctors are calling for the death of all Palestinians, authorities are forcing Arab personnel working in Israel to return to the Gaza Strip and fall victim to attacks, while Western media are trying to do so portrayed perpetrators as victims and claimed that it was the Hamas organization that started the hostilities.
Behind all this, this legend about the state built on Palestinian blood, lies the truth of an impoverished regime, whoever is in power, today with a Netanyahu, driven by corrupt practices and popular anger at draconian measures is clouded.
Imperial propaganda itself means that Israel is often viewed in the West as an exceptional country in the Middle East: in the midst of authoritarian and impoverished Arab regimes, it appears as an economically prosperous, technologically advanced and democratic state.
But researcher Michael Roberts shows, with the solid statistical and analytical support that characterizes him, that such a picture increasingly resembles a caricature, despite massive economic and military support from the United States.
And Israel faces a very problematic future, both because of the endemic confrontation with the Palestinian and immigrant populations and because of the insurmountable obstacles of a neoliberal and militarized economy based on inequality and the dismantling of the state.
Recalling that March marked its 75th anniversary, The Economist magazine commented that Israel is “enormously rich, more secure than in most years of its history and democratic, that is, when it is ready To exclude occupied “territories” (sic!). Aside from the human factor, it has endured wars, droughts and poverty with few natural resources. It is a special case in the Middle East, a center of innovation and a winner of globalization.
Joke about bad taste – unpleasant joke
These words seem like a tasteless joke today when we consider the events of the last few weeks or when we consider the true history of the Israeli state.
This story is about some Jewish immigrants who came to Palestine with the great goal of establishing a state of refuge for the Jews in their homeland alongside the Arab residents. Many of these Zionists dreamed that Israel would become a model socialist society, communally owned and managed by local communes or kibbutzim, as a democratic alternative to the rule of sheiks and generals in the Arab states.
The reality was that the Jewish immigrants who settled in Palestine and founded the new socialist state could in practice only achieve this by forcibly expelling hundreds of thousands of Arabs from their homes and lands.
Thanks to the combination of massive immigration (which doubled the Jewish population), huge foreign investments from wealthy Jewish communities and American capital, and the creation of a powerful military force, Israel’s economy grew very quickly from 1948 onwards, which was the golden age of post-war capitalism, when profit rates were high and investment was high were high.
The so-called democratic socialist state of Israel had to disappear if Israeli capitalists were to prosper. And so, as in many other capitalist economies, Israelis elected governments that wanted to end socialism and open the economy to unrestricted capital, while at the same time reducing Israel’s welfare state and support for collectives like the kibbutz. Israel entered strongly into the neoliberal era that lasted worldwide for the following two to three decades.
REAGAN THATCHER, AS MODELS
With policies modeled on Reagan in the US and Thatcher in the UK, 83 state-owned companies were sold between 1986 and 2000 for a total of $8.7 billion. The national airline ELAL, the telecommunications network Bese, all major banks and five other major corporations were sold to buyers selected by the government. Among the buyers were many of the wealthiest Israelis, as well as wealthy American Jews and other foreign corporations. None of these companies were for sale. For example, the government sold Israel Chemical Ltd. to the Heisenberg family as part of a private tender that took place between 1993 and 1997.
But that didn’t last. In the 21st century, Israel’s capitalist economy, like many other emerging countries, is encountering increasing difficulties. The big difference, of course, is that Israel had the full support of the United States and Western capital in its constant war with its Arab neighbors. Even in the face of ongoing conflict with its Arab neighbors and uprisings by displaced Palestinians, the country has managed to survive economically and build a formidable military force.
Ironically, mass immigration from the former Soviet Union, the importation of foreign labor, and the rapid natural growth of the local Arab population have resulted in Israel becoming less and less of a Jewish state in terms of population, and still relatively small, with just under 1,000 residents is 10 million inhabitants.
STILL REACTIONARY
But the effects of neoliberal policies and the economic downturn have not led to a shift to the left. On the contrary, fear of Arab attacks and the failure of an effective alternative socialist opposition have led to the rise of religious and ethnic political parties. Israeli capital has played the cards of race and religion to avoid any confrontation over its economic and social failures.
Even in the 21st century, economic crises occurred at regular intervals. In 2003, Netanyahu cut welfare benefits, privatized more state-owned companies, lowered the top tax rate, cut public sector services and passed anti-union laws.
This was followed by the Great Recession of 2008-2009 and then the pandemic crash of 2020, when GDP fell by 7%. The relative economic decline of the Israeli economy is evident in the real GDP growth rate in the Golden Age, in the profitability crisis of the 1970s, in the neoliberal period, and now in the long depression of the 2010s.
Over the past decade, collective kibbutzim have rapidly disappeared and been replaced by high-quality suburban housing. Land prices have skyrocketed due to real estate speculation. There has been a continued erosion of funding for health care and other public services, leading to increases in private health care costs and contributing to growing disparities in access to services between those who have money and those who do not.
The socialist dream of the first Israeli state has now given way to capitalist reality. The gap between lowest and highest incomes in Israel is the second highest in the industrialized world, and its child poverty rate is second only to Mexico among developed countries. On average, one in three Israeli children lives in poverty and one in five families lives well below the poverty line.
INEQUALITY
Israel is one of the most unequal high-income countries. The poorest 50% of the population earn an average of 57,900 NIS (new shekel, equivalent to 0.25 euros, approximately CSH), while the richest 10% earn 19 times more. Thus, inequality is similar to that in the United States, where the bottom 50% of the population earns 13% of total national income, while the bottom 10% receives 49%.
Of course, the poverty and inequality gap is much greater for Israel’s Arab citizens, who make up about 20% of the population. But the poverty rate is also high in the Orthodox Jewish communities, which make up a tenth of the population. Poverty is horrendous in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank.
In stark contrast, Israel’s wealth concentration is the second highest in the Western world. Infamous family fiefdoms include: Alison, Boro Vich, Dakar, Afer, Vino, Hamburg, Diezman, Wertheimer, Zis Apel, Revive, Federmann, Saben, Fishman, Sachar, Kiss, Strauss, Seltzer and Suva. These families collectively control a fifth of the revenue of Israel’s top companies, and these top 500 companies account for 40% of the corporate sector and 59% of national income.
This latest war, which resulted in genocide, will not bring the Israeli economy to a standstill. The government receives military and financial support from the United States.
Prolonged war may benefit weapons manufacturers and the military, but in the long run it reduces profitability and investment in the productive sectors of the economy. And for workers, apart from the terrible loss of life, this represents a straitjacket to improve their living conditions and human development.
The capitalist governments of Israel have no solution to the endless conflict with the Arab people under their occupation and on their borders. Now, as another war breaks out with grotesque levels of violence and reprisals, the Economist’s sweet words on Israel’s 75th anniversary taste very sour to both the Palestinian and Israeli populations.