The richest women in Israel, Shari Arison came out swinging today, blasting the Bank of Israel and accusing them of trying to nationalize her bank. Fresh off news that she is in divorce proceedings from her felon-husband Ofer Glazer, Arison is taking out her frustration at the BOI and she may be justified.

After all, the government doesn’t own the bank so why should they have a say in who she hires and fires as CEO of Bank Hapoalim?

According to Globes: “Arison said, “This isn’t control. This is a raid. It is creeping nationalization, and rapid creep. I won’t lie to myself, and I won’t do something that I don’t believe in just to placate a demand that I consider utterly unjustifiable. I feel very hurt. An arrow was fired and the target was drawn around it. There’s a feeling of McCarthyism - no law, no justice. This is simply a frame-up just because someone doesn’t like somebody else.”

Maybe the Bank of Israel should stick to payinmg attention to the economy, and worry less about non-government companies. Go get ‘em Shari!

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In the face of global chaos, Israeli real estate prices still found a way to go up over 10% for 2008.  While most of the gains came in the first 3/4 of the year, prices have gone up even more in places like Petach Tikva and Modiin, both with yearly price gains of over 20%.

From Globes:

Tel Aviv suburb Petach Tikva led the price rise in 2008 with the average apartment climbing 22% in price to NIS 856,000 last year. In second place was Modi’in where the price of the average apartment rose 21% to NIS 1,031,00. The average apartment in Rishon Lezion and Yavne rose by 17% to NIS 926,000 and NIS 587,000 respectively. The average apartment in Givat Ze’ev recorded a 16% rise to NIS 852,000. Prices rose 15% in Ramat Gan to NIS 1,037,000 and 14% in Tel Aviv to NIS 1,214,000. The average apartment price in Mevasseret Zion rose by 14% in 2008 to NIS 1,218,000 and by 10% in Jerusalem to NIS 1,060,000.

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