With the whole world moving quickly towards socialism, and with government printing presses working 24/7 in order to help print enough money to keep up with all the spending, in Israel the opposite is about to take place. The victory of Benjamin Netanyahu will usher in an era of tax cuts, and less government intervention in the daily lives of citizens, allowing the free market to work as it should.

We will actually have a real life ‘Battle of economic philosophies.’ keep in mind that the US entered economic Armageddon a full year and a half before Israel did, so first in first out may apply here, but we may get a real feel on which economic system works better.

According to a Bloomberg report:”There will be a certain amount of deterioration before we can turn around the economy’s direction,” Netanyahu said Feb. 23 at a meeting of Likud lawmakers. “We face an economic crisis that we haven’t seen in many years.”Netanyahu, 59, has vowed to lower Israeli taxes as he did as finance minister. He also promised during the campaign to liberalize the real-estate market, saying the Israel Land Administration’s near-monopoly inflates housing costs.”

If I was a betting man, I’d take the Netanyahu tax cutting and privatization plan heads down over Obama’s tax hikes, and nationalization of industry.

Netanyahu always said tiny Israel would become one of the world’s richest nations. Everyone used to scoff. now if tax cuts boost economic activity, Israel will truly turn into a ‘ light unto the nations.’

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We all know the common economic indicators: payrolls, GDP, retail sales..the list goes on and on. But perhaps the most ‘real’ way of judging how an economy is performing, is based on amount of withdrawals fro ATM machines. This way you can get a ground level look at the economy is functioning.

According to Ynet: “In December 2008, an 18% drop was noted in the public’s cash withdrawal from automated teller machines, compared to December 2007. The average sum of money withdrawn in December was NIS 500 ($120), compared to NIS 600 ($145) last year and NIS 550 ($133) in July and August of 2008. The total value of checks used in payments in 2008 also declined, and amounted to some NIS 80 billion (about $19 billion) down from NIS 88 billion ($21 billion) in 2007. A particularly sharp drop of about 23% was noted in November and December. An 18% rise in the number of dishonored checks was noted in November and December of 2008 compared to the same period last year. An average 183,000 checks were bounced each month compared to an average of 155,000 each month for the same period in 2007.”

The numbers are not pretty, and point to an Israeli economy in much worse shape than the data indicates.

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It appears that Russian oligarch Arcadi Gaydamak is leaving Israel for good. After watching all of his investmenst go up in smoke, and being continuously hounded by law enforcement offcials, it looks like he is about to drop his Israel citizenship.

According to Globes: “IDF Radio” (Galei Zahal) reports that Arcadi Gaydamak has asked the Russian Ministry of the Interior to reinstate his Russian citizenship, which was revoked in the 1970s when he moved to Israel. Since Russian law does not permit dual nationality, Gaydamak will have to give up his Israeli citizenship to get his Russian citizenship back. Gaydamak’s lawyer told “IDF Radio”, “He asked for his Russian citizenship to be restored a few days ago. He is making an effort to win back his previous citizenship, which means that he will have to forgo his Israeli citizenship.”

He certainly added some spice to Israeli society. We wish him well.

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So now it’s Hillary’s turn, to denounce Israeli policy towards Hamas. Joining an ever growing list of congressman, senators, President Obama, Mrs. Clinton slammed Israel over not proving enough humanitarian aid to the Palestinians in Gaza.

Quick question for you Hillary. What about pressuring Hamas to release kidnapped Israeli soldier Gilad Schalit? Why does only Israel have to do the ‘humanitarian’ thing? Why can’t we expect the same behavior from the Palestinians? Why don’t you care about releasing him?

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