Published: 19 November 2019
Last updated: 4 March 2024
THE HEALTH AND FUTURE of the Israeli economy keep researcher Professor Dan Ben-David awake at night.
Israel, home to a flourishing entrepreneurial ecosystem, world-leading academic institutions and a disproportionately high number of Nobel Prize laureates, seems to be enjoying a golden era of national success.
There have been some financial bumps along the way since its establishment, of course, including hyperinflation in the 1980s and the heavy financial toll of the Second Intifada, yet decision-makers have managed to steady the ship across the years.
Ben-David, however, has been ringing alarm bells for two decades.
“The long-range trajectories are unsustainable,” warns Ben-David, a lecturer at Tel Aviv University’s department of public policy, and president and founder of the Shoresh Institution for Socio-economic Research.
Ben-David, who specialises in long-term economic trends, says he has shown his research to every prime minister since Ehud Barak, as well as a long list of finance ministers, education ministers and senior policymakers.
“Israel has this golden period right now, doing well for several years, and everything it needs to do well is here – but the long-range trajectory has existential implications for a country located where we are,” he said.
FULL STORY 50% of Israel’s children are receiving a 'third world education' (Jerusalem Post)
Photo: Ultra-Orthodox men protest in Jerusalem last November (Ronen Zvulun/Reuters)
