[this from the mouth of Ben-Gurion University president and noted economist Avishai Braverman]
"I believe that the state of Israel is at a crossroads today. If Israel continues on its present path, it will degenerate into a Third World country."
According to Braverman, who held a number of positions at the World Bank, Israel needs to adopt the social democratic outlook of Bill Clinton and Tony Blair, the American concepts of the Constitution and free enterprise, and the socio-economic policies of Sweden and Finland.
"Don't be afraid of Amir Peretz," Braverman told reporters. "Amir Peretz is not a Communist. Amir Peretz is going in the same path as Tony Blair, because we must not move in the path of Thatcherism."
[I guess this means that Sweden, Finland, Britain under Blair, and the U.S. under Clinton have all experienced the societal benefits of social democracy; I must have been sleeping from 1992-2000. I don't know how 'noted' or competent (whatever that means in the field of economics - remember James O'Conner's aphorism that 'economics is a criminal enterprise' (or something to that effect)) an economist Braverman is, but his comment on the social democratic outlook of Blair and Clinton certainly indicates that he would have a bright future in marketing.]