What a million-and-a-half shekels buys

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The cost of Israel’s war is estimated to be up to one billion shekels a day. Economists believe that the end price in monetary terms will be over 10% of the country’s entire economy. At the same time, the ultra-orthodox parties extorted another 1.3 billion shekels to keep paying for their yeshivas that keep young people out of the army. One estimate at the end of December stated that the failure to draft yeshiva students cost the economy 8.5 billion shekels last year.

In this scale of things, a million and a half shekels is peanuts. That is the sum paid to Gideon Sa’ar for rejoining not just the government, but the Likud, and, in doing so, selling the entire country down the river for a mere pittance. His failed party’s debt will be forgiven and he will get to advance party member Ze’ev Elkin to a ministerial position. In return, his freedom to vote as he pleases (I almost wrote according to his conscience, but apparently that was never an issue) is revoked. Israel may still be nominal democracy, but the political parties that rule it are anything but. They run the gamut from outright oligarchies, like the Likud; to theocracies dictated by ancient rabbis; to a kind of consensus, like the disintegrating left.

That frees Bibi and Sa’ar’s new BFF (okay, BFTW, best friend this week) Yariv Levin to complete their evil plans. Those plans include firing the attorney general and taking control of the judicial system as well as continuing to keep the country at war for as long as possible.

So even as they attempt to negotiate a hostage release without actually negotiating, reservists are called up, tanks are aligned on the border and planes resume reconnaissance flights.

Kaching!

We are holding on to bits of Syria, and attacking others, while delaying our withdrawal from outposts in Lebanon.

Kaching!

The ultra-orthodox are refusing to comply with the draft, and the yeshivas are still being fully funded, despite orders to cut their funding if they support draft dodging.

Kaching!

Bezalel Smotrich, our finance minister, has, in the meantime, diverted public funds to his party member, Orit Strock’s illegal settlement projects to the tune of 75 million shekels, in addition to tens of millions already funneled her way.

Kaching!

Who is paying for all of this? It is of course, we “friars,” (suckers) who work and pay taxes, who purchase goods at full price and rarely cheat. This much is obvious: We pay and have no say in whether our money is spent on ammunition or public welfare. But our numbers are shrinking, and over a third of Israeli households reported a fall in income; reservists, called up for a fifth round of duty get partial pay; and international companies quietly pull out of Israel. We buy less in Israel as VAT rose to 18% and cheap goods are available with a click online. Or, if we have means, we travel to London or Thailand to shop.

Still, Israeli banks made record profits last year.

Kaching!

Who is doing the math? Apparently, no one. Finance, at the Knesset level, is less a matter of money coming in and going out, more a matter of coalition politics – everything is paid for with our country’s credit card debt. The consequences will only be felt in the future. (Maybe you, personally feel them right now; but how can you complain when there’s a war on?)

I’d like to do a thought experiment. Imagine if we had passed around the hat and paid Gideon Sa’ar a million and a half shekels to quit the government and work to bring it down. Add another two or three million to support the election of a middle-of-the-road-to-left coalition. Even with the cost of early elections, I estimate we could have saved the country tens of billions of shekels. That would have been a pretty good return on our investment.

Bringing the hostages home and ending the war; bringing in rich oil countries to clean up our mess in Gaza; reinvesting in agriculture and sustainable growth; rooting out corruption; rebuilding a system that is fair to everyone, that reduces our defense costs to normal levels: I am imagining, in my thought experiment, to what extent these would be good for our economy, even before we get to the intangible goods.

Alas, for the paltry sum of a million and a half shekels, the government coalition will now be free to continue bleeding money left and right, north, south, east and west, while its center is bled dry.