ההסתדרות והשלום

הסתדרות העובדים הכללית פרסמה בחודש אוגוסט מסמך בו היא מכריזה כי “פתרון שתי המדינות, ישראל ופלסטין, החיות זו לצד זו בגבולות מוכרים ובטוחים, הוא הדרך היחידה לסיום הסכסוך”. במסמך קוראת ההסתדרות לממשלת ישראל “לבצע וויתורים ולקחת צעדים קונקרטיים ואמיצים למען השגת השלום”. המסמך גם מכיל ביקורת על אספקטים שונים של הכיבוש הישראלי, כגון גדר ההפרדה, המחסומים והמאחזים הבלתי חוקיים.

בנוסף, המסמך מדגיש את הקמפיינים שניהלה ההסתדרות למען זכויות עובדים פלסטינים, ואת תמיכתה המשפטית והחוקית בעובדים אלה. בין השאר הוא מציין את העבודה הנעשית בשיתוף עם הפדרציה הכללית של האיגודים המקצועיים הפלסטינים, ואת המיזמים המשותפים המאורגנים על ידי ההסתדרות ועל ידי מקבילתה הפלסטינית. ראוי לציין כי המסמך אינו מזכיר כלל את ההתנחלויות, ובפרט את מעמדם של עובדים הפלסטינים המועסקים בהתנחלויות, הסובלים רבות מהפרת זכויות עבודה ומניצול חמור.

המסמך מכיל גם ביקורת על קמפיין החרם המובל על ידי תנועות שמאל שונות בעולם, המתמקד בהחרמה של מוצרים המיוצרים בהתנחלויות ובחברות המשקיעות בהתנחלויות ובחימוש הצבא הישראלי. המסמך, שפורסם בשפה האנגלית, טוען כי “במידה וחרם יצא אל הפועל, קורבנותיו הראשונים יהיו העובדים הפלסטינים וכלכלת הגדה המערבית”, וכי “אקטים של חרם מציבים מכשולים נוספים בין שני העמים ומתסיסים את האווירה החיובית הקיימת בינינו לבין הפדרציה הכללית של האיגודים המקצועיים הפלסטינים”.

קמפיין החרם הממוקד בתוצרת התנחלויות ובתעשייה הצבאית זכה לאחרונה למספר הצלחות, לאחר שהביא למשיכת ההשקעות של קרן השקעות נורבגית בחברת התעשייה הצבאית “אלביט”, ולביטול מיזם הרכבת הקלה בירושלים על ידי תאגיד Veolia.

את המסמך שפורסם על ידי ההסתדרות ניתן להוריד מהכתובת: http://www.ituc-csi.org/IMG/pdf/Histadrut_Resolution_Peace_and_Cooperation-August_2009-revised.pdf

למאמר על ההיסטוריה של ההסתדרות מנקודת מבט ביקורתית: http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article10379.shtml

Hit Them in the Wallet

On June 16th, the US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation published an open letter calling for the halt of military aid to Israel, in ordeer to protest against Israeli occupation of Palestine. The letter states that military aid to Israel should be conditioned on Israel’s “progress toward achieving the President’s stated goals of ending the siege of the Gaza Strip, ending all settlement activity in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, and engaging in a credible negotiating process that results in a just and lasting peace.” The Campaign include peace movements such as Code Pink Women for Peace, Progressive Democrats for America, and various social movements and labor unions.

Some of the supporters of the halt of US aid are relying on clauses in the international law which prohibit trading in arms with countries that are systematic violators of human rights. The important human rights watch group Amnesty International argues that recent operation Cast Lead in the Gaza Strip saw the usage of weaponry not authorized by international law, such as white phosphorus and shrapnel artillery shells, which was additionaly used against civilian population. This act, Amnesty states, should result in Israel being placed under an arms embargo by the international community. The Amnesty report further argues that since the US is the major arms supplier to Israel, the US must halt every kind of military assistance to Israel including the supply of said illegal weapons. Furthermore, the military aid undermines US law, which prohibits assistance in combat training and military aid to countries that are considered human rights violators.

The aforementioned publications come at the time of the discussion of the federal budget for the year 2010. According to the planned budget, the grant to Israel will amount to $2.7 billion – $225 million more than the 2009 grant. The Obama administration has obliged to transfer $30 billion in military aid to Israel over the next ten years, or a 25% increase from the equivalent period under former administrations. The funds will be transferred despite Israeli government refusing to cease settlements construction or to dismantle the illegal outposts, two goals which were stressed in the Obama Cairo speech.

In addition to the campaign to withhold US government aid to Israel, many organizations and activists are working to prevent private businesses and corporations from trading with Israel on area related to military and illegal settlement activities. Such for example is the campaign aimed at Caterpillar Corporation. The corporation is a main supplier of bulldozers and equipment which is frequently used to demolish Palestinian houses in the occupied territories and East Jerusalem, acts in which brought to the destitution and even death of many Palestinian civilians, and one US citizen, Rachel Corrie, in 2003. The campaign targeting the corporation has managed to raise much awareness of the company activity, and even to some divestment in Caterpillar, including by the Church of England and some investment funds.  Consequent of similar pressure, the multinational company Motorola has decided to liquidate its holdings in Israeli company Mirs Communication, following a controversial deal in which the Mirs Communication supplied the Israeli Army with bomb fuses that were used in the recent wars in Gaza and Lebanon.

Another major act of divestment from the Israeli occupation has been the decision of Veolia Transportation to drop its contract with CityPass, the executor of the light rail project in Jerusalem. The act comes as the result of an intensive lobbying effort by peace organizations,  pointed at the fact that the light rail project will be connecting Western Jerusalem with the eastern part of the city and with major settlement blocs surrounding Jerusalem, thus strengthening and perpetuating the Israeli grip on the territories.

An important tool in the identification and marking of war-related businesses is the website whoprofits.org. The website is operated by the Israeli movement Coalition of Women for Peace, and features an extensive list of Israeli and international corporations which are financially involved with the Israeli occupation and settlements. Another notable mention is the campaign for boycott of settlements products, led by Israeli peace movement Gush-Shalom. The movement’s website contains much information concerning the campaign and various other activities concerning the issue.

Democratic Rights in Israel in Peril

The Israeli government took this week a new measure in its attempt to suppress democratic rights in Israel.  The government has approved a bill banning all commemoration of the Palestinian Nakba of 1948, under penalty of Imprisonment.  The bill is yet to pass in the Israeli parliament, subject, for now, to heavy criticism from many Israeli parties, from the Israeli Labor party to the Jewish-Arab Hadash and the Arab parties.  However, since the coalition government in Israel enjoys a majority of seats in the Knesset, the chances for seeing the law pass are quite high.

The bill adds to yet another undemocratic move by the government, that of making a “loyalty test” mandatory for every Israeli citizen.  If the bill passes, every Israeli citizen, upon reaching the age of 16, shall be obligated to sign a declaration stating her or his commitment to Israel as a “Jewish and Zionist state,” as well as to serve in the Israeli army or an alternative “national service.”  At present, the vast majority of Israeli Arab citizens are exempt from military service, making the loyalty test an instrument for the further discrimination and exclusion of Israeli Arab citizens.

Both of the bills were brought forth by MK Alex Miller of Israel Beytenou party, an ultra-right nationalist party, whose program includes the loyalty to the state as one of its central planks.  Currently the party holds 15 seats in the Knesset out of a total of 120, making it the third largest party in Israel.  The party is a member of the ruling coalition and holds some key offices in the Israeli cabinet, as high as the office of the Minister of Foreign Affairs.

These steps come at a very troubling time for the democratic rights in Israel.  In the run-up to the recent elections, the two parties representing the Arab minority in Israel, Balad (National Democratic Assembly) and Ra’am-Ta’al (United Arab List – Arab Movement for Renewal), were banned from running by the Central Elections Committee.  Only after the Supreme Court of Justice overturned the decision were the parties able to participate in the elections.

Jews and Arabs demonstrating against the war in Gaza

The Israeli invasion of Gaza of December 2008 was met with consistent opposition of many Arab Israelis, who protested against the exceptional brutality demonstrated in the war by the Israeli army.  The demonstrations were joined by hundreds of Jewish peace activists, who called for ceasefire and bilateral negotiations.  Many of the demonstrators, especially those of Arab ethnicity, were portrayed as “disloyal” and as “fifth columns” in the dominant Israeli discourse, which questioned their right for assembly and free speech in time of war while describing the demonstrations as “disturbances” and even “lynching.”

In addition, during the weeks of the war, dozens of Israeli citizens were arrested in a procedure known as “administrative detention,” i.e., the arrest and incarceration of suspects without proper judicial process.  Even a prominent Israeli journalist — Amira Hass, who writes frequently on the topic of human rights and resides in Gaza City — was arrested by the police.  The restrictions on Israeli and foreign journalists during the weeks of combat in Gaza even triggered the demotion of Israel in the international Freedom House index from “free” to “partly free.”

While many global militants for the Palestinian cause are already standing up for human and political rights in Palestine, it is also necessary to view these issues in the context of the looming threats to Israeli civil society.  The closing of political discourse and the erosion of civil rights in Israel put in danger the ability of oppositional forces within Israel to voice their opinions and to disseminate information, which in turn will make it even more difficult to end the occupation.

Published as an article in http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/rosenberg260509.html

Who Profits from the Occupation

February saw the launch of the website “Who Profits?“, a website maintained by the Israeli movement Coalition of Women for Peace. The website presents clearly and extensively the list of Israeli and multinational corporations who are financially involved with with the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories, whether by the funding of businesses in illegal settlements or by the supply of services, as well as military and construction equipment to the system of occupation in the West Bank and Gaza. The site interface includes a search engine which allows the search by the company name, its origin country and even by its annual income and the stock index in which it is traded. Among the dozens of of companies which are listed on the site, it is hard not to notice the names of the leading companies in the Israeli economy, such as the Alon Group, Africa-Israel Investments, Elbit Systems Ltd, the major banks as well as some prominent weaponry and technology manufacturers. Not all companies in the list are known actors in the military-industrial complex: some of the occupation profiteers include Caterpillar, which provides the equipment for house demolitions as well as construction of checkpoints, Hewlett Packard (HP) which provides the Israeli military with IT, and even Pizza Hut and General Mills, the producer of Pillsbury, which are dealing heavily with illegal settlements.

The site could be highly valuable for activists who aim towards the boycott of businesses investing in the system of Israeli occupation, and for public campaigns against the illegal settlements in Palestinian lands.

Above all, the data presented in the website exposes the level of corruption  reached by the regime of monopoly capital,  which is based not merely on trade and production but on the organized violence applied by the capitalist state in order to preserve the profit level. It is essential that activists on the left work in order to uncover the violence which is inherent in the monpoly capitalist regime, and to combine the struggle against the economic system with the struggle against military occupation, violence and racism.

For an interview I conducted with Dalit Baum of Coalition of Women for peace: http://monthlyreview.org/mrzine/rosenberg140309.html

Tadiran-Ampa: From Government Military Industry to Global Neo-Liberalism

The Tadiran-Ampa bankruptcy story as an exemplar of the balance of forces in Israeli society

The sights that could be witnessed in the month of November 2008, in the Tadiran-Ampa site in Holon are the sights the Israeli public got used to see in every other plant shutdown: raged workers fearful of dismissal, burning tires, anger and violence.

The Tadiran-Ampa factory is one of the numerous victims of the recent financial crisis, which beginning lies in Wall Street speculation mania and its continuance – with closing down of workplaces in the Middle East. But the tale of Tadiran-Ampa is not solely that of economic hardship, as it demonstrates the story of the Israeli political economy and the trail of destruction left by the global capital in Israel in recent decades.

Tadiran Corporation was founded under the Koor concern in the 1960s, as a component in the new military-industrial complex which was founded in those years under government supervision. Tadiran concentrated several industries in the area of electronics, from home appliances to advanced weaponry systems. The control over the company was considered a “strategic asset”, and was accordingly held in most part by the Israeli Ministry of Defense. In addition, as a company partly owned by the Histadrut (the Israeli labor union confederation), Tadiran provided secure employment for the tens of thousands of its employees, in the sector of the military industry. The sector was flourishing after the 1967 war, a war which highly leveraged the blue-and-white armament industry.

During the 1980s the Israeli economy began to shift direction: under the order of the US State Department, a swift economic liberalization had to be undertaken by the Israeli leadership.

The Koor concern, which at this period began to register losses, due to the absence of major military conflict on the horizon, was brought under the management of the Israeli businessman Benny Gaon. Gaon carried out a series of deep reforms, which included the dismissal over 40% of Kur workers, with brutal treatment of the dismissed employees. The bright entrepreneur indeed brought the concern back on the profitable track, a move which qualified the company in eyes of capital markets: few years later Kur was privatized and sold to an American investment fund, and thus was taken out of the hands of the Histadrut. (Gaon was later awarded several prizes for his philanthropic activities).

Tadiran-Ampa workers protesting against their dismissal

 

 

In following acts of privatization and corporate restructuring, the situation of defense industry workers was made worse and worse. The Israel Military Industry company, for example, laid off some 70% of its workers in the years since the opening of the liberalization program, despite growing income and thick supply contracts. The reason for such move is clear: the IMI is on its way towards privatization, and therefore needs to take on significant acts of “re-organization”, even at the price of eliminating much of its workforce and erasing its real output.

Concerning Tadiran, the company was disassembled into several different companies. Its home appliance division limped and barely survived the introduction of foreign competition into Israel, which flooded the local market with cheap products. Government subsidies have focused more upon high added value branches and multinational corporations such as Intel, which effectively left Tadiran out of the game. In 2001 Tadiran was merged with Ampa under the control of businessman Zeev Birenboim. The move has created one of the biggest companies in the sector of electric appliances in the Israeli market, which did not impede Birenboim from starting in lay-offs and transferring the remaining workers to work under personal contracts, lacking any ability of collective bargaining. The acquisition by the company Crystal, which was meant to guarantee the survival of Tadiran-Ampa, was not realized finally due to the global financial crisis. Currently, another company has offered to acquire Tadiran-Ampa, under the condition of the dismissal of half of its 400 employees. Birenboim himself will have to settle for a smaller raise in his wage, which amounted in 2007 to 1.9 million Shekels (470,000 USD).

The breakdown of Tadiran-Ampa takes place while Tadiran’s military department, Tadiran Kesher, has registered hefty profits in recent years. Tadiran Kesher was acquired in 2005 by Elbit, the military industry goliath. Following the acquisition, the workers union in Tadiran was effectively dispersed, and the employees themselves were shaken down for millions of Shekels as a penalty for the strike which they organized. Today Elbit is one of the fastest-growing military equipment companies in the world. Its growth was greatly accelerated after the outbreak of the second Intifada in 2000 and the US War on Terror campaign.

The current situation is the result of decades, during which the military industry, the so called “growth engine” of the Israeli economy, turned from government-held companies into privately-owned companies, which are accountable only to their stockholders. In addition to the havoc which the companies’ products wreck throughout the world, the companies themselves terrorize their employees.

 

Relevent quote by Karl Polanyi

I recently came across the following quote by Polanyi, in his major work The Great Transformation. I thought about it in the context of the economic crisis in Israel, the recent war in Gaza and the attempted disqualification of two central Arab minority parties.

Here it is:

In reality, the part played by fascism was determined by one factor: the condition of the market system:

The dominance of fascism was directly related to the health of the market system. During 1917-23 when the market system was in good shape, its help was not needed to set it right. It remained undeveloped though governments, occasionally, sought its services to maintain law and order by crushing the forces that aimed at changing the existing socio-economic system.

In the period 1924-29, when the restoration of the market system seemed ensured, fascism faded out as a political force altogether.

After 1930 market economy was in the general crisis. Within a few years fascism was a world power. (The Great Transformation, p. 242)

Real change?

U.S. study urges Obama to press Israel over nuclear program

f this is serious, we might be talking about some REAL change. Every
single president since Kennedy has embraced and supported Israeli
nuclear policy, which basically consists of “Let me die with the
Philistines!” approach. The policy was tested at least once, during
the 1973 war, when the Israeli army was on the brink of defeat, and
Israeli politicians actually considered nuking the entire region to
smithereens. Unfortunately, not many activists and journalists are
able to connect the Iranian (and Iraqi, at its time) nuclear ambitions
of getting a half-functioning atomic bomb, with the huge arsenal of
nuclear, biological and chemical arms which Israel is proliferating
for the last 40-something years.
By the way, the readers comments to the Hebrew version of the article
are mostly along the lines of “giving up our nuclear arms is a return
to Auschwitz! Never again!”.

Israelis Favour War

According to a recent poll, 46% of Israelis favour Mccain over Obama, which makes Israel one of the few countries in the world in which the Republican candidate takes the lead. This result expresses a long Israeli tradition of sticking with hawkish presidents, from Reagen to Bush II.

Strangely enough though, large parts of the Israeli left and Zionist left seem to be catching the Obama mania. One popular blog even depicted Dov Khenin, one of the leaders of the Israeli Communist Party, in the style of Obama’s “Hope” compaign. Thus disregarding some significant differences between the radical social activist and the big-business friendly candidate. For example, while one has fought with firmness against the Israeli military establishment, defending conscientious objectors who refused to serve in the Israeli Army, the other wishes to force military service upon America’s youth.

Israel’s Sacred Terrorism

This fantastic graphic is taken from the blog General Strike, which is strongly recommended.

The quote in the picture is taken from the book “Israel’s Sacred Terrorism”, which was published in 1980 by Livia Rokach. Rokach was the daughter of  Israeli senior politician Israel Rokach, which also served as the mayor of Tel Aviv. After the publication of the book Livia Rokach was crucified by the mainstream media, and later had to emigrate to Italy, where she spent the rest of her life. The book is today rarely mentioned, if at all, in Israel, and has basically evaporated from Israeli political and historical discourse.

In Israel’s Sacred Terrorism Rokach collected historical documents, mostly entries from the diary of Moshe Sharet. Sharet, who was the prime minister of Israel from 1953 to 1955, also served for several years as foreign minster, during the critical first years after the establishment of the state of Israel. Sharet writes in his diaries in details about certain uneasy chapters in Israeli history, such as the “Lavon Affair”, the Suez Operation, and many others. Special emphasis is being put on the deliberate use of state terrorism by Israel, which since 1948 targeted Palestinian, and other, civilians in order to achieve its strategic goals in the area. According to Rokach, “these operations had a double purpose: to terrorize the populations, and to create a permanent destabilization stemming from tensions between the Arab governments and the populations, who felt they were not adequately protected against Israeli aggression” (from the introduction).

In fact, even Israeli citizens were mobilized in order to carry attacks on Arab civilians: Sharet writes, after the 1955 murder of five Bedouins by Israelis near Ein Gedi:

When I arrived in Tel Aviv an officer…came to tell me that the whole revenge operation was organized with the active help of Arik Sharon, the commander of the paratroopers battalion. He had the four furnished with arms, food, equipment, had them driven with the unit’s car part of the way and ordered that their retreat be secured by his patrols. The officer did not rule out that Dayan, too, knew of the operation in advance. Moreover, the four now refuse to talk upon an explicit order from Arik [Sharon], perhaps approved by Dayan. A campaign is being organized against me because I revealed their identity (to the press). Arik is shouting that I have exposed the men to revenge in the case that they will fall prisoners while fighting in the army at any future time. (chapter 6)

The book also describes, from a firsthand source, Israel’s diplomatic connection with the great powers – Great Britain, France and the United States – and its role as henchman to their imperialist schemes in the area:

On October 1, 1955, the U.S. government, through the CIA, gave Israel the “green light” to attack Egypt. The energies of Israel’s security establishment became wholly absorbed by the preparations for the war which would take place exactly one year later. In the summer of 1956, in preparation for the Sinai-Suez operation, the close military and political alliance with France was clinched. [...] Israeli bombings of South Lebanon, specifically intended to destabilize that country, were to start in 1968–after the 1967 war, after Dayan’s nomination as defense minister in Levi Eshkol’s cabinet, and after lsrael’s definite transition from the alliance with France to that with the United States. From that moment on, this unholy alliance was to use every possible means constantly to escalate terrorist violence and political subversion in Lebanon, according to lsrael’s blueprints of the fifties. (from chapter 5)

Also emphasized is the overall cynicism of the Israeli commanders and top politicians. The Zionist masters of war were as experts in internal and foreign propaganda as today’s modern spin doctors. The book describes how, after an attack on Egyptian military camp which killed 39 people (as part of the buildup for the invasion to Gaza), Sharet wrote:

it is possible that this outburst will be interpreted as the result of the army and the nation’s outrage against the Powers’ policy of ignoring the security of their state and will prevent the continuation of that policy to the bitter end. We, at least, have to make sure that this will be the common impression…. I dictated a briefing for the embassies…. It is desirable that the press should express the following: (a) Our public opinion had been agitated by the penetration of an Egyptian gang into a densely populated area and its attack on public transportation; (b) It seems that the clash developed into a serious battle as the exchange of fire was going on; (c) Egypt always claims that it is in a state of war with Israel which it demonstrates by acts such as blockade and murders and if there is a state of war, these are the results; (d) This event cannot be detached from the general background of the feeling of isolation which prevails in Israel in view of the West’s alliances with the Arab states… (quoted in chapter 8 )

This sort of attitude towards truth-telling also appears in Rokach’s notes on the discussion regarding the Kybia massacre:

Now the army wants to know how we [the foreign ministry] are going to explain the issue. In a joint meeting of army and foreign ministry officials Shmuel Bendor suggested that we say that the army had no part in the operation, but that the inhabitants of the border villages, infuriated by previous incidents and seeking revenge, operated on their own. (quoted in chapter 3)

The internal aspect of propaganda campaigns of this kind is also discussed in the book. As Rokach writes:

The creation of a siege mentality in Israeli society was necessary to complement the prefabricated myth of the Arab threat. The two elements were intended to feed each other. Although Israeli society faced a serious risk of social and cultural disintegration under the impact of a mass immigration of Asian and North African Jews into the pre-state’s ideologically homogeneous community, the purpose of the siege mentality was not so much that of attaining a defensive cohesiveness in Israel’s Jewish society. It was calculated principally to “eliminate the moral brakes” required for a society to fully support a policy which constituted a complete reversal of the collective ethical code on which its formal education was based and from which it was supposed to derive its vital strength. (from the introduction)

The book was published by the Association of Arab-American University Graduates, Inc. in 1980, and is prefaced shortly by Noam Chomsky. Online version of the text exists here:

http://www.geocities.com/alabasters_archive/sacred_terror.html

The Financial Crisis Hits Israel

The recent financial crisis does not skip over Israel. The country that has been integrating itself in global capitalist markets in the last decades sees once again the ugliest side of capitalism, as the stock markets dropped over a stunning 10 percent since the beginning of the month and the GDP growth forecast for the next couple of years has been slashed.

The crisis finds the Israeli society in worse shape than it has been during the last recession, that of 2000-2003: currently about a quarter of Israeli citizens live below the official poverty line, among which the percentage of minority groups, such as Israeli Arabs and orthodox Jews, is extremely high. A large part of the Israeli poor population is defined as “working poor”, meaning people who are employed, and yet do not reach a minimum living wage, a phenomenon which is usually regarded as a symptom for the crumbling of the middle classes.

Despite many governments around the world, from Europe to Mexico, are intending to increase expansionary spending in order to combat the oncoming recession, the Israeli government has already declared that it is intending to keep a balanced budget, and in order to do so, further cuts in social spending will be necessary. The government had not yet revealed its 2009 budget, but as in the 2003 emergency economic plan, it is likely to include reduction of state support for education and welfare, shutting downs hospitals, schools and community centers.

The current crisis also has a direct effect on the pension and long term savings of many Israeli workers and retirees. In the last decade Israel went under a series of financial reforms aimed at integrating the Israeli society in the international financial system. Thus, the major pension funds, which until 1995 were held by the Israeli labor confederation, were nationalized, only to be privatized in 2004. The era also saw the acquisition of major financial institutions, such as the country’s biggest insurance company and second-largest bank, by foreign holders. The financial institutions, which were then fully integrated in international finance, did not invest in the traditional channels of government bonds, but instead in foreign financial markets, as well as securities of the Israeli major tycoons, which are themselves heavily invested in foreign financial equities. The losses which the global financial sector has suffered in the last several weeks had major effect on the institutional investors’ earnings, resulting in the pension savings shrinking by an average of 8 percent, with a feeling that the worst is yet to come. Many workers, especially those near age of retirement, simply don’t believe they will be to maintain a decent standard of living, and are so forced to work to older age.

Another sector that has been affected by the crisis is the vast network of NGOs providing necessary welfare to thousands of Israelis. With the deepening poverty in Israeli society, the NGOs have come to supply many essential social services, from soup kitchens and charity to health and education. The NGOs, which often operates under the banner of “social justice”, are usually heavily reliant upon contributions from Israeli and international wealthy donors, including some of the major Israeli capitalists. Usually, at times of economic turmoil donations are becoming skimmer, which will leave a significant part of the Israeli population without basic essentials, sometimes as basic as food and shelter. This aspect of the crisis is especially felt in the Palestinian territories, as many aid programs are being cut back due to lack of funds.

The Israeli industry is also likely to suffer cutbacks, with over 10,000 employees are expected to be fired in the next weeks. The dependency on foreign markets, which was usually hailed by liberal politicians as the sign of success of the Israeli industry, is likely be the bane of it in times of global recession. Many venture capitalists, especially in the IT and biotechnology sectors are already pulling out of Israel.

However, one sector which is not showing signs of recession is the constant production of instruments of destruction. Elbit, Israel’s major private arms producer, saw its profits going up $3.7 billion for the second quarter of 2008, while Magal, another company which specializes in security and surveillance systems, saw its stock rising a staggering 78 percent since 2007 (the company is a central contractor in the erection of the notorious separation wall in the occupied territories). Furthermore, Israel’s defense budget is not likely to be cut in 2009, and will continue to occupy about 15 percent of the overall state expenditure. Among the billions assigned to the Israeli military, $4 billion will be spent on purchasing 25 models the new F-35 fighter, or $87 million apiece, which makes it as twice as expensive as its catalogue price, to the happiness of Lockheed-Martin Corporation. The government’s set of priorities, which is revealed in this overpriced and needless purchase, exposes the core of Israel’s geopolitical role, which is to be the strongman, or the “big stick” of US foreign policy.

Demonstration against the privatization of pension funds

The text was also published in MR Zine: http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/rosenberg211008.html

Hebrew version: http://www.maki.org.il/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1293&Itemid=82

Spanish version: http://www.nodo50.org/csca/agenda08/misc/arti56.html