Despite last week’s much-publicized Moody’s downgrade of Israel’s bond rating, “no one should be under any illusion that a financial crisis is about to halt Israel’s onslaught on Gaza” writes Adam Tooze. "Israel’s debt-to-gdp today, is on a par with that of Germany... Before the conflict Moody’s expected the ratio to decline towards 55 percent. The war will push it from 60 to 67, which would make it the envy of fiscal hawks around the world.”
"This is the backdrop against which we must evaluate the financial aid promised by Washington to Israel”, he says. "The aid that the Biden administration and Congress are pushing, amounts to a gratuitous subsidy to the tune of $14.5 billion... If the cost in gross defense spending comes to 107 NIS, as the Bank of Israel estimated back in November, America’s politicians are planning to reimburse Israel for almost exactly half the cost of its campaign of destruction. And the US rushes to provide this aid, even though, as Israel’s financial technocrats insist, Israel is more than capable of paying for its own war. And were it to do so, Israel’s debt to gdp ratio would be far lower than that born by US tax payers.” Instead, according to Tooze, “the purpose of American aid is first and foremost to satisfy domestic political imperatives...America’s politicians want to be seen to be spending American tax-payers dollars on Israel” The Israelis also view the effect of US financial support as “primarily” political, providing "lavish endorsement for Israel's effort to erase the Palestinian question by brute force." See: https://adamtooze.substack.com/p/chartbook-266-israels-downgrade?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=192845&post_id=141634396&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=true&r=ewjoh&utm_medium=email -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Groups.io Links: You receive all messages sent to this group. View/Reply Online (#28932): https://groups.io/g/marxmail/message/28932 Mute This Topic: https://groups.io/mt/104397800/21656 -=-=- POSTING RULES & NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. #4 Do not exceed five posts a day. -=-=- Group Owner: [email protected] Unsubscribe: https://groups.io/g/marxmail/leave/8674936/21656/1316126222/xyzzy [[email protected]] -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
