by Dr. Gabi Avital
For example, Israel's per capita gross national product, widely held as a key benchmark for the strength and stability of an economy, has gone up from $15,600 in 2003, when Netanyahu was appointed finance minister, to $41,000 in 2014. No other OECD country, to which we so love to compare ourselves, has seen this kind of growth. The unemployment rate during that same period has plummeted from 10.3% to 5.7%, which everyone agrees is a low rate compared to Europe. The average monthly income in Israel has gone up from 7,884 to 9,123 shekels over the last five years.
It is said that the
truth is generally the rule of thumb for average citizens. They may slip
here and there, but the term "white lies" is not what guides them. The
truth, or at least its objective representation, must serve as the
guiding factor for all elected officials, especially at election time.
This kind of naiveté, however, is laughable.
After all, one of the
Zionist Union's most prominent campaign ads features a slogan about
"nine years of nothing" -- a reference to the combined number of years
Benjamin Netanyahu has held the office of prime minister. Nine years of
total failure in everything that Netanyahu touched, the ad suggests. If
the Zionist Union was really representing the truth, then the people
would be wise to flock to the polling stations and vote for it in
droves, giving it at least 50 Knesset seats.
But the fact is that the truth is light-years away.
For example, Israel's
per capita gross national product, widely held as a key benchmark for
the strength and stability of an economy, has gone up from $15,600 in
2003, when Netanyahu was appointed finance minister, to $41,000 in 2014.
No other OECD country, to which we so love to compare ourselves, has
seen this kind of growth. The unemployment rate during that same period
has plummeted from 10.3% to 5.7%, which everyone agrees is a low rate
compared to Europe. The average monthly income in Israel has gone up
from 7,884 to 9,123 shekels over the last five years. But all these
"social" achievements are heavily obscured.
Israel's economic
growth has been steady at 4% every year in the recent past, despite the
global economic crisis of 2008. This kind of growth was also recorded
during Netanyahu's first term as prime minister, between 1996 and 1999.
So what is happening
here? Why are the vast majority of media outlets offering a grim
outlook, making it look as though Israel is on the verge of destruction,
without water, food or housing? I was recently asked about that on a
television program. The host of the program rhetorically asked whether
the main issue in these elections was the socio-economic one, and I
answered that it was. I added that it has always been. In every
election, at least in the last 20 years, the Left has pushed the social
issues to the forefront to draw votes. The host then added a follow-up
question about the fact that the security issue has been pushed aside.
It is true, it has, but why?
Because Israel's
security is in good shape, both in terms of personal security and
strategic security. The minimal number of terror attacks and terror
victims during the years Netanyahu has been in power is especially
evident. Some people assert that Operation Protective Edge (Israel's
confrontation with Hamas in Gaza over the summer) was a failure.
Netanyahu opponent Yair Lapid remarked at the height of the operation
that Netanyahu "gets high marks from me. I have to be honest and say
that the way this operation was handled -- the listening, the
comprehensive meetings, the control and command mechanism, the restraint
and the decision making -- are all very impressive."
There is currently
absolute calm in Israel's south because the three main things that Hamas
relies on -- rockets, tunnels and a defeated Israeli homefront -- have
been eliminated.
They say everything
here is bad; that there are no prospects for peace; that Israel is
internationally isolated. So what if they say that? Commercial trade
with Turkey has doubled in the last five years from $2.6 billion in 2009
to $5.6 billion in 2014, and that is just one example of many.
Why are these
achievements absent from the headlines? Why is the truth being so
effectively concealed? The undecided voters should know the truth, and
when they do, justice will be done.
Dr. Gabi Avital
Source: http://www.israelhayom.com/site/newsletter_opinion.php?id=11921
Copyright - Original materials copyright (c) by the authors.
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