The achievements of Benjamin Netanyahu across his political career have been considerable. He deserves substantial credit for the flourishing of Israel into the high-technology powerhouse it is today. When Netanyahu first became prime minister, in 1996, he inherited an economy hobbled by onerous taxation and bloated regulatory policies that were the socialist legacy of the Israeli Labour Party’s 30 years in power.
Netanyahu wasted no time implementing the small-L liberalising economic principles he learned at the prestigious Sloan School of Management at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. State-run companies were privatised and foreign exchange controls were abolished. Lower taxes and entrepreneurial incentives fostered a hardware and software start-up culture second to none in the world.
These same pro-business policies have facilitated the emergence of Israel as a major energy exporter. With 15 trillion cubic metres of natural gas reserves found on and offshore, Israel has begun to supply Egypt and Jordan with sorely needed fuel for their electric power grids. Negotiations are under way for the construction of a trans-Mediterranean pipeline that will export Israeli natural gas to Europe.
From cutting-edge medical therapies to sophisticated desalination and drip-irrigation technology, Israel has emerged as a global centre of scientific and engineering innovation. As a result the Jewish state has catapulted into the first rank of the world’s economies, with a 2019 GDP per capita of $US42,820 ($63,762), greater than that of France ($US42,640) or Britain ($US40,390).
Read the article by Ted Lapkin in The Australian.