Some weeks ago, while writing about the drubbing Israel suffered in the National Brands Index, I got into an argument with one of my ‘Israel is peachy keen’ readers. He tried to sell me the bill of goods that it didn’t matter what the rest of the world thought of Israel since the country was an economic engine chugging along under full power. All was for the best in this best of all possible worlds.
The NY Times published a similar article today expounding on the continuing success of Israeli economic growth. But it’s important to note that tucked away in the second half of the story is the bad news. The economic miracle affects only the highly educated and skilled, the professionals, engineers and technical class who can benefit from the expanding industries like technology. But that leaves 20% of the population who have no such skills high and dry.
Israel’s 20% poverty rate may be compared to the U.S. rate of under 13%, Ireland’s 10% and France’s 6.5%. It ain’t a pretty picture.
I quote this section of the story so my readers will take home a more rounded, balanced portrait of the real Israeli economy:
The economic tide is not lifting every Israeli boat, however. Despite the economic growth, the number of Israelis living below the poverty level has been edging up, from 18 percent in 2002 to more than 20 percent last year, according to the government’s National Insurance Institute.
Critics say this is because Israelis who are struggling economically have seen their benefits fall sharply, while they remain unemployed. The unemployment rate is at its lowest level in a decade, but still relatively high at 8.4 percent.
Benjamin Netanyahu, who as finance minister pushed aggressive open-market policies from 2003 to 2005, was also widely criticized for cutting social programs in a country where couples often have many children and depend heavily on such subsidies.
“The basic problem is that economic growth has been very uneven,” said Shlomo Swirski, the academic director of Adva, a research institute that focuses on the poor.
Job growth, he said, has been concentrated in sectors that require a high level of education. Economic growth has been greatest in Tel Aviv and surrounding areas, the economic hub of the country, while the less developed Galilee in the north and Negev Desert in the south have seen much less progress, Mr. Swirski added.
“We’re looking at growth that is highly concentrated geographically, economically and socially,” he said.
Economists note that many of the poor come from two groups, Israeli Arabs and ultra-Orthodox Jews, that have large families and low participation rates in the work force. Among Israeli Arabs, few women have formal jobs. Among the ultra-Orthodox, many men do not work.
The Times article neglects to mention that one in three Israeli children lives in poverty. Another factor that reinforces the unevenness of the Israeli ‘economic miracle.’
I never contested the fact that in Israel, like in many modern western economies (even those with strong social safety nets), there is poverty.
The issue had to go with Israel’s “branding.” And this article is more proof that despite one survey, Israel’s brand is quite strong.
The next step is to get stronger leaders who will strenghten Israel’s social safety net and make sure that all can enjoy in the prosperity.
In fact, in all yr cheerleading about the Israeli economy you ONLY trumpteted the good news. And when I presented to you the facts of Israeli poverty you very pointedly said nothing in reply. This is the first time you’re acknowleding that such poverty is a less than desirable feature of the Israeli economic “miracle.” Boker tov, as they say in Hebrew.
A few facts sgould be highlighted:
Many of Israel’s poor are WORKING poor, that is, people who work very hard, often in more than one job, but their wages are so low they live n poverty.
Many of them are employed through manpower agencies as has become more and more common in Israeli economy over the last few years. In fact many of the lower levels in Israels govermental and municipal jobs are employed in that way.
Although many of the poor are indeed children from large families (one out of every 3 children lives below the poverty line), many poor children come davka from small young families, especially many FIRST children are poor (data presented yesterday by Tamar Gozansky, Ben Gurion University lecturer today, on Galey Zahal radio).
This tendency will get worse, as unemployment payments will be cut by 25% for the under 28 year olds, according to the new budget.
In fact in the new budget there is NOTHING , zil, zero to deal with children’s poverty.
So those of you who want to talk about Israel’s wonderful economy, its “brand” so to speak, are doing a crime by 1 out of every 3 Israeli children.
“Brand” , try to convince a hungry child of “brand”.
And, eh, thanks for the links to my site, and the credit ofr the image, however the name is Ilany and not as mentioned.
No hard feelings
🙂
UGH! Pardon my sloppiness. I was reading an article last night at Ynetnews by Yehuda LITANI & transposed his name for yours. My apologies. I’ve since corrected the mistake.
I was listening to a show on Air America a couple of months ago – and wish I had taken notes (although I was driving – would have been a tad difficult 🙂 )
Anyway – they were quoting a book about the involvment of notable American neo-cons (Perle, Wolfowitz, Kirkpatrick, etc) – who have been very active in Israeli politics, particularly associating with Netanyahu in trying to completely counter the historic trend of socialist economic policies… We are clearly seeing the results
Your facts state better than any argument I could make why the zionist entity should be eliminated. The zionist entity preys on the elderly and oppresses the Palestinians, and I cannot think of anything it does right. Even if the zionist entity were replaced by another Rwanda, it would be a vast improvement
What a poor, twisted soul our “Bogdan” is. Actually, he’s not Bogdan at all. He (or she) is a student at Emory University. Probably taking his first few Jewish history courses and so learning about that great, evil 17th century anti-Semite Cossack leader, Bogdan Chmielnicki. So he thought it’d be a lark to try to slip by this fraudulent comment. Either he’s really an immature college student who somehow thought this was funny. Or he’s testing my knowledge of Jewish history to tell whether I can detect his little shenanigan.
I’ve got news a-hole. You’ve been nailed.