The News Behind The News
December 17, 1999
The Story Behind The Peace ProcessWhat's behind this story after 7 years of making the peace process its most imperative foreign concern is this: Nothing. This story makes no mention of the one dominating domestic Israeli fact that explains the peace process. It is not obscure: in a word the dominating domestic fact is MONEY. The Israelis are looking for not less than $150-200 BILLION for the Golan. Again the reason is simple. While the New York Times has been touting the Israeli economy (see the News Behind the News story in this site at http://www.iasps.org/nbn/nbn2.htm) as a booming and growing concern for as long as it has been reporting the peace process in the context of Israel's "restive democracy," and the views of its "incredibly partisan parliament," the Israeli economy has been stagnating at 1-2% annual per capita growth, including the years of Russian immigration in the first half of this decade, which added a remarkable 20% to the country's population.
In fact Israel already is "a truly tiny country." However it's not the Arabs' fault. The reason is socialism and U.S. money that keeps it going. The reason Israel is now poised to get tinier still explains why it hasn't grown in the first place. The reason is that the socialist Israeli State can never get enough money to pay for Israeli socialism: not from foreign aid, not from bonds and remittances, not from loans and loan guarantees, not from high marginal tax rates, and not from taxing car radios in cars that don't have any radios. And now, it's getting low on land to sell. That's the meaning of "tiny."
In a New York Times front page story on December 15 the real "price tag" does not get mentioned anywhere. That's the News Behind the News. It's more than one year's full Israeli GDP (including $10 billion of free money) or maybe double (i.e., $75-200 billion). That will be the price tag the Israelis will float. Make no mistake about it. There is no country in the world or in the history of the world that can make such a statement (and The New York Times won't make it either.)
As for the foreign policy side? It's the economy stupid, that is, it's the economy of the Arabs (down) and of the Russians (hopeful). Look at the map. See where Chechnya is. See where Caspian oil comes from. Consider this: A Russian led and armed OPEC including Iran, Iraq, the weakened Gulf States in train, and, oh yes, Syria (and Jordan). Bittersweet!
Three strong-willed leaders. Incredibly partisan parliament. Restive democracy. In a language more likely to be understood by The New York Times and political pundits and reporters of the caliber of our Deborah Sontag, the real headlines should have read: "Show Me The Money!"
The News Behind the News Archive:
-The Peace Process
-The Stock Market Tax
-The Truth about the Free Processing Zone
-The Realities of Missile Defense
-Israel, economic powerhouse?
-Gad Ze'evi and Bezek Stock