Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his wife Sarah visiting the national headquarters of the national volunteer organization "Ihud Hatzla".
February 6, 2023/united salvation
Minister of Finance.
He promised an "economy with God's help" and now it turns out that we need not only his help, but also his mercy/image processing, Haim Goldberg/Flash 90
The document compiled by the Moody's rating agency is the worst they could expect in Israel.
His bottom line, the one that includes both the downgrading of the country's credit rating and a dire warning about the near future, is not a death blow to the Israeli economy, but it is going to weigh heavily on all of our pockets - and very soon.
But perhaps it is worthwhile, even before moving on to examine the possible consequences of the report on the local economy, to say right now and in a loud and clear voice: this black spot is also the full responsibility of Benny Gantz, Gadi Eisenkot, Gideon Sa'ar - and all their other members of the faction, since those who call the arguments of the people of the rating agency, one gets the impression that it is not the war alone that has damaged the credit rating, but the fact that it is being managed as a dead end - a sentence that deserves to be echoed in every home in Israel, before all the nonsense of the "absolute victory" campaign.
War is an expensive business, that is clear. It constitutes Damage to the economy, but this is a one-off event, one that recovers from, certainly the robust Israeli economy, the one whose central bank coffers had (and still has) billions upon billions of foreign currency, just for such a moment.
In other words, it was not the actual war and the ability of the Israeli economy to absorb it, but the fact that it became amorphous, without a clear form and goal, such that it is not clear when it will end and how much it will cost.
The Minister of Defense, for example, tells us that it will take years, his friends on the right are already dreaming of settling in Gaza, contrary to the opinion of the US government, when at the same time the "old" and bad politics are already visible in the rearview mirror, the one that may bring back the divide in Israeli society and the struggle for Its democratic nature. All these are not the growling of the heart of a "Kaplanist" but sentences that appear in the most severe report ever written on the Israeli economy.
War Cabinet.
This report is actually not about the Israeli economy, but about the management ability of the current government/Government Press Office, Amos Ben Gershom
We don't buy the lies of the Minister of Finance
Let's assume that the rating agency doesn't buy the lies, literally, of the Minister of Finance who stated that in the budget proposal submitted for approval by the Knesset "everyone goes under the stretcher", this is more in the purely economic field, what the rating agency is actually saying is that it does not believe that the Israeli government is capable of running the country, the campaign - and only after that, also the Israeli economy towards a better future.
Let's take a break for a moment and try to check the possible consequences of such a report on the daily lives of all of us. Lowering a credit rating is damage to reputation, but the kind that immediately turns into a financial problem. Imagine that someone comes to borrow money from you: if it is a person (man or woman) Hard-working, with an orderly job, reasonable financial conduct and responsibility, someone who radiates credibility. You can lend him the money with relative security and on favorable terms that include low interest.
But what if someone appears at your door who looks dubious, desperately in need of money - with rumors in the background that his checks are beginning to bounce ? Most likely you won't be in a hurry to give him what he wants - and even if you are convinced to do so, you will price the risk in the form of high interest.
Of course, there is worse than that, like that trembling drug addict who shakes a plastic cup before our eyes at a traffic light - and will receive at most a coin out of pity, well - Israel is not there , not even close, but she is already starting to resemble the dubious branches, the one who will pay dearly for his money he needs.
Soldiers in Gaza.
The government will find it difficult to raise the money for the choppers that it promised to the subjects in the burden, while it plans to increase it on them and officially exempt others/IDF spokesman
at the expense of the reservists
And Israel needs money.
It needs hundreds of billions of shekels (cumulatively, over the coming years, even under the optimistic assumption that we are already beyond the expensive phase of the war and that we will manage to avoid a war in the north) which it does not have.
What to do?
What does a person who needs money to purchase, for example, an apartment: recruit outside.
Until now, Israel has behaved in front of the financial institutions of the world as a proud borrower, one that everyone would be happy to lend money to, based on its reputation.
From tomorrow Israel will become such that its conditions will deteriorate - and the worst, according to Moody's report, is yet to come: no more warnings and writings on the wall like in the days of the legal revolution, but a clear and real warning that even this downgrade is not the end of the story
. Citizens of Israel? For example, that there will be more painful cuts at our expense. Take, for example, their billions needed by the grandiose plans to compensate reservists, the people who have given - and will continue to give - precious months of their lives and risk their lives for our security. scandalous conscription), which is intended not only to compensate for the issues with the burden, but also to preserve the impressive registration percentages for reserve service, which will probably be required again soon, the government needs money.
One option is to cut the state budget. Here the government failed miserably: the budget cut came from sections that affect directly on the quality of our lives, but not, for example, from the coalition funds or from cutting government spending, such as closing unnecessary offices and eliminating unclear sections (a.k.a. "strengthening Jewish identity") in the budget, those whose entire purpose is to "launder" political bribe money.
However, since even that was not enough, the budget deficit was increased, which actually means that the government will increase the overdraft, the credit limit at the bank, so that it can spend more money - starting tomorrow, this overdraft is going to become very expensive - and if you think that the government is the one that will bear the costs of the excess financing, you have laughed at Goldknopf .
This report is all (too) yours.
Benny Gantz/photo processing, Noam Rivkin Fenton
Gantz is starting to pay the price of the rise in the polls?
The deeper one looks into Moody's report, the darker the eyes become, because let's say someone got angry enough to demand that the government step down and hand over the management to someone who will do it better than it, you have to remember that the horrible budget that is submitted for a vote in the Knesset or for the management of the war without an exit plan, without an in-depth discussion about the day After that, without saying what will happen but only what is out of the question - Gantz, Eisenkot, Sa'ar and the rest of their friends are also partners in this strange political alliance - yes, yes, even the sympathetic trooper troops!
This time they won't be able to say that if it weren't for them, the situation would have been much worse, that the influence of the extremist elements on the government's discretion would have produced a more serious injury.
Because while they were (let's say) conducting the war responsibly, it turned out that the budget (which they opposed, but which in their eyes was less sensitive than the security effort) was all Smotrich.
While they are putting all of us to sleep, by the way, in the polls, that the discussion about the day after can be postponed, only because otherwise this very important framework of the unity government will fall apart, it became clear that not all over the world are buying the freedoms that can be sold to the citizens of Israel.
I want to say, this report is (also) by you.
Not (only) about Gafni and Strok, but also about you: Do you hear, Reservist Major General Benny Gantz?
There were also some bright spots in the report, but it is doubtful that they will encourage those who refused to wake up from the previous warnings of the rating company.
On the positive side is the resilience of Israeli society, its commitment to democracy as expressed in the High Court's decision to disqualify the grounds of reasonableness and more.
Look what this is: once again the judges of the High Court, past and present, in The Hague or Moody's, are the ones who save us from the line, including All the quacks who turned the Israeli justice system into their political punching bag.
In his first year at the Ministry of Finance, Minister Smotrich repeatedly uttered the phrase: "We do the economy with God's help."
In light of the severe Moody's report, it may be time to change the wording a little, to "doing an economy, may God have mercy".
More on the same topic:
Moody's
Credit Rating
Gaza war