Toward the end of last year, Israel signed an historic agreement with Lebanon, enabling both countries to enjoy an abundance of natural gas located deep below their respective territorial waters.<\/p>\n
Now, Israel can continue exploring its northern Karish gas field without the risk of Hezbollah missiles overhead. And Israel will receive indirect royalties from Lebanon\u2019s Kana field \u2013 with no peace treaty (yet), royalties will be paid via a third country. Add that to potential revenues from Israel\u2019s other natural gas finds in the Mediterranean, and there\u2019s the opportunity of Israel replacing Russia as Europe\u2019s main natural gas provider. Israel will become more than just the land of milk and honey.<\/p>\n
Optimistic forecasts of a natural gas Sovereign Wealth Fund are for billions of shekels in tax revenue. Trusting that the new ruling gas triumvirate \u2013 Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and Energy Minister Israel Katz \u2013 will optimize our natural gas and its wealth fund, then Israel becomes the land of milk, honey, natural gas and an overflowing wealth fund.<\/p>\n
Hopefully, Lebanon\u2019s natural gas opportunity will help their economy. Then it, too, will be a country overflowing in natural gas and with its own wealth fund.<\/p>\n
***<\/p>\n
Israel\u2019s 2022 inflation rate was 5.3%, its highest since 2008.\u00a0 Within the OECD, Israel had the third lowest rate, behind Japan\u2019s 3.0% and Switzerland\u2019s 3.3%. How\u2019s that for our little shtetl! Can\u2019t even compare these rates with the much poorer performing OECD countries such as Estonia at 23.6%, Lithuania at 24.1% and Turkey at 83.5% (yikes!).<\/p>\n
Israel\u2019s rate was even lower than the 6.3% of Canada, whose neighbour to the south experienced a similar level. As for Israel\u2019s neighbours, Jordan and Saudi Arabia were at 4.4% and 3.3% respectively … pretty good. Egypt suffered a 24.4% inflation rate, Syria a rate of 105% and Lebanon 189.4%, one of the highest in the world! Israel, the land of milk, honey and competitive inflation rates.<\/p>\n
***<\/p>\n
Then there\u2019s the judicial reforms bonanza. Israel\u2019s new justice minister, Yariv Levin, is looking to overhaul the system by granting the government \u2013 through a simple majority vote \u2013 the right to overturn High Court decisions and by giving politicians more power in appointing Supreme Court judges. Detractors are concerned this gives the government way too much say over legal matters and threatens our democracy.\u00a0 Supporters \u2013 largely those who voted for the new government \u2013 believe these changes will strengthen the legislature\u2019s ability to enact the will of the electorate. Theirs, anyway.<\/p>\n
Karnit Flug and Stanley Fischer, former Bank of Israel governors, are firmly in the former camp. They\u2019re concerned these reforms will harshly undermine the High Court\u2019s authority and concentrate too much power with the government, hurting Israel\u2019s sovereign credit rating, destabilizing the economy and reducing the standard of living.<\/p>\n
Netanyahu \u2013 the free market czar who revolutionized Israel\u2019s economy as finance minister and who extracted natural gas from our sea as prime minister \u2013 believes his judicial reforms will rejuvenate the economy by reducing excess regulation and judicialization.<\/p>\n
Adding to the festivities. Israel\u2019s anti-reform (and largely anti-government) movement had its third weekly 100,000-person protest in Tel Aviv last month. A sea of people storming the city square, waving flags of blue and white, singing folk songs and Hatikvah and shouting slogans of support for the high judges. Israel, the land of milk, honey and a real judicial balagan.<\/p>\n
***<\/p>\n
It\u2019s here! 7-Eleven opened its first store in Israel. In downtown Tel Aviv (of course), with plans to roll out hundreds of branches throughout our little shtetl over the coming years. Hello, Slurpees! Those multi-coloured slushies were a staple of my Canadian childhood. Although now\u00a0 I am more a fan of the fresh Dole bananas sold at the stores in the United States and Japan, which I\u2019d buy as a healthy snack while on overseas business trips. Looking inward, does this mean the demise of Israel\u2019s famous mom-and-pop stores, found in neighbourhoods across the country, the Bella\u2019s and Yankela\u2019s, which add to Israel\u2019s heimishe-like atmosphere? That would be a pity! Israel becoming the land of milk, honey, Slurpees \u2026 and Dole bananas.<\/p>\n
***<\/p>\n
On a much lighter note, what about Israel\u2019s maple syrup revolution? It was once only available from specialty food stores, and at an exorbitant price. But what\u2019s a poor Canadian immigrant to do? I paid the ransom and our family enjoyed Shabbat morning French toast, pancakes and waffles. Whenever visiting Canada, I stocked up with the stuff, packing carefully bubble-wrapped bottles of both real and imitation maple syrup into my suitcase.<\/p>\n
But, thanks to free trade. Real maple syrup \u2013 the organic kind from Canada \u2013 became super cheap in Israel, even less expensive than in Canada! And it\u2019s available everywhere, even at Bella\u2019s and Yankela\u2019s. Now when I return to Canada, I take back Canadian maple syrup as gifts. Dare I say it \u2026 Israel, the land of milk, honey and Canadian Maple Syrup, eh.<\/p>\n
Bruce Brown<\/strong> is a Canadian and an Israeli. He made aliyah \u2026 a long time ago. He works in Israel\u2019s high-tech sector by day and, in spurts, is a somewhat inspired writer by night. Brown is the winner of the 2019 AJPA Rockower Award for excellence in writing, and wrote the 1998 satire <\/em>An Israeli is…. Brown reflects on life in Israel \u2013 political, social, economic and personal.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Toward the end of last year, Israel signed an historic agreement with Lebanon, enabling both countries to enjoy an abundance of natural gas located deep below their respective territorial waters. Now, Israel can continue exploring its northern Karish gas field without the risk of Hezbollah missiles overhead. And Israel will receive indirect royalties from Lebanon\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4329,10],"tags":[3851,3200,6078,4330,22121,3597],"class_list":["post-40704","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-israel","category-op-ed","tag-business","tag-economics","tag-inflation","tag-israel","tag-judicial-reform","tag-politics"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":8}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40704","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40704"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40704\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40704"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40704"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40704"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}