Column One: Israel’s Premeditated Market Failure, by Caroline Glick
Excerpts;
One of the foundations of the free market is rational choice theory. That theory assumes that private individuals generally make decisions that maximize their profits and utility and do so far better than any collective organization or bureaucracy. Rational choice theory stands or falls on the availability of information. Without the free flow of information, people are unable to make rational choices.
In Israel, as the country’s steady economic growth and high placement on just about every significant global economic index shows, the economic liberalization reforms enacted by former prime minister and finance minister Likud Chairman Binyamin Netanyahu have been a complete success. The Israeli economy is the envy of a Europe that suffers from stagnation and decline.
Yet inside of Israel, the country’s economic success is a well-kept secret. Most Israelis operate under the impression that the country is on the verge of economic ruin – that poor people are starving, that sick people are going without proper medical care. The reason that most Israelis believe that the country is teetering on the brink of an economic disaster is because the Israeli media have consistently reported an economic narrative that has absolutely no relationship with reality. So, while international investors line up to invest in the Israeli economy, Israeli citizens look to socialist politicians and pundits to save them from their capitalist nightmare of success.
Just as they underplay Israel’s economic success to advance their socialist economic agenda, the Israeli media distort coverage of Israel’s increasingly dangerous strategic environment to increase public support for their defeatist, left-wing world view. In both endeavors, the media are supported and abetted by the legal system.
Events on the northern front and in Gaza over the past few days demonstrated that Israelis are denied a free flow of accurate information regarding their national security. On Monday, Ha’aretz reported darkly, “Iran has transferred to Lebanon rockets that reach Beersheba.” The report stated that the Iranians recently provided their proxy Hizbullah with Zelzal-2 rockets capable of hitting every major city in Israel.
Yet while this report is true, it is neither startling nor earth-shaking for anyone who has been closely observing developments in south Lebanon over the past few years. The recent shipment of Zelzal missiles does not constitute a departure from well-formed Iranian, Syrian or Hizbullah policy patterns.
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