[lbo-talk] Israel's Roaring Economy

[Yoshie Furuhashi]

On 6/20/07, Jonathan Nitzan <nitzan at yorku.ca> wrote:
> > According to the IMF, Israeli GDP growth has
> > averaged 5% since 2004. That's not China, but it's
> > still pretty strong. Population is growing about 2%
> > a year, so per capita, it's around 3%. Not the top of
> > the world, but highly respectable. Is this measurement
> > somehow misleading?
> >
> > Doug
>
> The most recent official statistics for Israeli per capita growth rates
> the ones you cite. The linked chart traces Israeli per capita growth
> till 2002, smoothed as a 10-year moving average. If you were to add the
> data for 2003-2006 and compute the 10-year moving average, the average
> for the 1997-2006 would come to 1%.
> http://bnarchives.yorku.ca/228/05/20070401_bn_the_rockefeller_boys_figure.jpg.
>
> According to the World Bank, the global average for 1996-2005 (last
> year) was 1.7%

Compare the paltry ten-year average Israeli per capita growth rate of
just 1% for 1996-2006 and the respectable 2004-2006 average of 5%, and
we can see that Hamas's unilateral 18-month ceasefire and entry into
electoral politics has done wonders for Israeli economy (in stark
contrast with the declining economy of the Al Aqsa Intifada years that
is shown in your graph:
<http://bnarchives.yorku.ca/228/05/20070401_bn_the_rockefeller_boys_figure.jpg>),
while the successful international boycott of the Hamas-led
government, with cooperation of Arab states, helped divide the
Palestinians and led to Fatah's coup against Hamas, which in turn has
been passed off as Hamas's coup against Fatah.

Now some are even talking about a "three-state solution": Jacob
Savage, "The Three-State Solution," 20 June 2007,
<http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-savage20jun20,0,3035724.story?coll=la-news-comment-opinions>;
and Charles Levinson, "West Seeks Three-State Solution," 17 June 2007,
<http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/06/17/wgaza417.xml>!

Until Washington loses Egypt at least, there probably will be no way
out for the Palestinians.
--
Yoshie