IASPS
Quarterly Report
Winter 2000
Keeping
Tabs on Israel's Internet
Comments of the President
The Director's Column
CNET
Report Relies on IASPS
Koret
Fellowship Program Brings Results
The Institute and the Internet
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Comments of the President
By Robert J. Loewenberg
The Institute in the Year 2000
Much has been made about the Year 2000. The world fretted over, prepared for, and overcame bug 2000, apocalyptic pronouncements about the end of the world as we know it, and other
millennium-driven concerns. In its own way, IASPS has also targeted the Year 2000 as a critical turning point in its own development. First and foremost in the maturity and success of the Koret Fellows Program. What you have read about in past editions of the Quarterly, and in this one in particular, is what one would call the development of a policy community. What we are witnessing now is the maturity of a program that has produced more than just effective
Policy Studies, dozens of scrapbooks full of newspaper articles and op-eds, and legislative and administrative reform proposals. What the Koret Fellows Program has now begun to produce in "real time" (as they say these days) is an active community of
IASPS-trained professionals carrying on in the best tradition of scholarship, integrity, and courage.
We Can See The Results
We can see these results in the way Amir Etzioni has become Israel's leading spokesman for Internet reform. We can turn on a television or radio news program and watch and listen to Udi Menirav explain the importance of tax reform. We can find our Koret Fellow graduates in positions of power and prestige in both business and policy and, more importantly, we will find that they remain committed to the principles of freedom they learned and absorbed during their tenure as Fellows. This in and of itself provides those of us who have invested so much in this program a tremendous sense of pride and accomplishment. Yes, we are proud of these young people and the Koret Fellows Program that has helped them develop a focus on economic freedom and reform.
The Information Age
The Year 2000 has also ushered in a new information age for the Institute. It would be hard to overstate the change IASPS has undergone with its new devotion to the Internet, its website, and information technology. While research, facts and solid analysis remain our "bread and butter," our Internet presence has created a whole new face for the world and one that thousands of Internet users have come to know and trust. The simple fact that the number of IASPS website visitors has increased from a few hundred
"hits'' per month to 50,000 over a period of just a few months (and without advertising) is indicative of the change underway.
We have dedicated ourselves and our resources to upgrading, refining and redefining our presence on the web. With Alvin Rabushka's drive and oversight and Yuval Levin's
web-master skills at work every day, we will continue to add new features, streamline our site, and even capitalize on the fund raising opportunities through banner advertising and a
content-rich site that captures Internet surfers and creates a "stickiness" that brings them back day after day.
But beyond the bells and whistles of the high-technology websites and electronic transfer of
Policy Studies, the core of our work remains the same: solid research, critical analysis and the careful crafting of policy initiatives. In this area, too, the Institute finds itself at a turning point. When this Institute began over a decade ago, its mantra was (and still is) that outside free money (i.e., U.S. aid) was destroying Israel's independence and its chances for reform and freedom. At the time, this position was considered irresponsible and beyond the pale. The fact that it was true and based upon a careful study of the facts was of no concern to the policy makers who had grown up knowing no other way.
"Free Money'' vs. The Truth
The Institute did not bow to the pressure to compromise the truth or the message and today our position is in fact recognized as unassailable. It should come as no surprise, however, that the question or tactic now used by those who cynically cling to the flow of free money is that it is necessary, even if only temporarily, in light of the peace process and the costs associated with it.
Indeed, it was the careful analysis of the State's need for outside free money that allowed IASPS to predict long before it became public (see,
"The Story Behind the Peace
Process," in "News Behind the News'' that the Israelis would be looking to receive not
$3-15 billion for the evacuation of the Golan as it was being reported in the mass media, but
$70-150 billion. The later figures are now the "unofficial" figures being bantered about Washington by Israeli lobbyists.
Today, the Institute's positions on almost all areas of economic reform are found in the editorial pages of
Ha'aretz and Globes, in the pronouncements of government officials, and in the legislative proposals they craft. More and more, as you read beyond the prefatory statements in these political, policy and legislative declarations, you find a citation from an IASPS study.
All of this is to say that the Year 2000 is a year of great opportunity for IASPS. More than a decade of careful analysis, dedication to the truth and perseverance is allowing the Institute to
leverage technological advances in ways unheard of just a few years ago. IASPS is poised to play an important and constructive role in Israel's reform and survival.