The News Behind The News
February 8, 2001
Sharon's PrioritiesZalman Shoval is one of Israel's leading "hawks," a fully "plugged in" socialist-business man and banker in Israel, above all a practiced hand at extracting money from Washington for government-to-government transfers. Globes' announcement that Shoval is on a "charm campaign" to put a human face on Mr. Sharon is focused in the disclosure that Mr. Shoval is seeking money. In fact Shoval is seeking $450 million in a "special US aid package" negotiated by the Barak government just swept out of office on February 6 in a landslide vote (62% to 37%).
If, as this Institute has argued and demonstrated in the past 15 years it is Israeli socialism --Jewish statist policies designed to insure that a troika of interests in business (Shoval-style banking), labor (Histadrut), and the State --that has fueled Israel's demographic decline or the drain of manpower and capital making the peace process inevitable, no one should expect a Sharon government to do more than change the style of Israel's policies. That Mr. Sharon has made one of his first public acts, even before forming a government, the enlisting of Mr. Shoval to travel to Washington for money or what underserves the need, as Barak himself just commented before the election, to "sell off some assets" to "buy time," Washington should understand that with Sharon, no less than Barak and those who came before, Israel does not intend to change anything. Sharon will be tougher with the Arabs but this only means that when he is toppled, aid and free money being the consensus to preserve Israeli socialist statism, it will mean the last attempt to resist the deluge released because of this system will have been made.
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