THOUGH A GOOD PORTION OF THAT RETARDATION...

Occupation has cost Israel dear, says report (Rory McCarthy, 6/04/08, The Guardian)

Israel's occupied territories and conflict with the Palestinians has undermined the country's economic growth and has cost at least an extra 36.6bn shekels (£5.7bn) in defence spending over the past two decades, according to an Israeli thinktank.

Calculations by the Adva Centre, an independent policy centre in Tel Aviv, suggest Israel's economy has been held back, inequality within the country has grown and there have been significant government budget cuts to pay for mounting defence spending. [...]

["T]he truth is that the conflict with the Palestinians is like a millstone around the neck of Israel: it undermines economic growth, burdens the budget, limits social development, sullies its vision, hangs heavy on its conscience, harms its international standing, exhausts its army, divides it politically, and threatens the future of its existence as a Jewish nation-state."

Adva's figures show Israel's economy grew 43% between 1997 and 2006, well behind world economic growth during that period of 67% and growth of 68% in the US and in the EU.

...comes from resettling immigrants from the collapsed Iron Curtain and from the slow acceptance that socialism doesn't work.

Posted by Orrin Judd at June 3, 2008 8:08 PM