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84
BOOM page 63
in the world, meaning that it
would inevitably slow down.
For the first half of the 1990s,
Israel's annual economic growth
rate was comparable to that of
the Far Eastern "tigers," and be-
yond the dreams of the West. Un-
employment had been cut almost
in half. While the Rabin-Peres
government spent beyond its
means, driving up inflation in the
process, its liberal policy also paid
off in vastly improved schools,
new highways all over the coun-
try, and a lot more jobs. Prosper-
ity was in the air.
Today, Netanyahu blames the
economic doldrums on the previ-
ous government, saying the Ra-
bin-Peres regime spent the
country into deep overdraft while
holding the economy in a social-
ist hammerlock with state own-
ership over large companies.
Early on, Netanyahu promised
to cut spending sharply and
speed privatization, and he has
made good on his word. Yet, the
economy grows weaker.
The opposition blames the re-
cession on Netanyahu's mishan-
dling of the peace process.
Unemployment is
rising and foreign
investment is
dropping.
`The government's own figures
show that foreign investment is
down by 40 percent. Nobody
wants to invest in a country that's
on the brink of war," said Avra-
ham Shochat, finance minister
under Yitzhak Rabin and Shimon
Peres. Because of that perception,
tourism also has stumbled.
But the truth is that no coun-
try could maintain Israel's
tremendous growth record for
long. It expanded at an annual
average of 6 percent in 1990-95.
Naturally, today's recession
hurts Israel's poor worst of all.
And Netanyahu's brand of eco-
nomics doesn't offer relief. The
Social Democratic Party in his
coalition, led by Foreign Minister
David Levy, recently extracted
from him a long, expensive list of
promised spending programs for
the poor. But with more budget
cuts immediately ahead, nobody
expects them to be fulfilled.
Israel's economy leaves Ne-
tanyahu in a difficult political po-
sition. As Maxim Levy, David
Levy's brother and the Gesher
faction's No. 2 man, said: "Ne-
tanyahu was elected by the peo-
ple in the development towns,
and they are waiting to see what
it got them."
A development town is often a
backwater, usually in the Galilee
or the Negev, settled in the 1950s
by uneducated Sephardi immi-
grants. They often have low-paid,
unskilled jobs at best, and un-
employment at worst.
In Kiryat Malachi, at the
northern edge of the Negev, more
than 70 percent of its 22,000 res-
idents voted for Netanyahu in the
last election.
At a local falafel joint fre-
quented by the chronically un-
employed, Lalou Ategi, 37, a
handyman who's been out of
work for two years, said he used
to be "hardcore Likud." He ex-
pected that his fortunes would
rise with the new government.
"Now, for all I care, [Palestinian
leader Yassir] Arafat can come
and take over," he said.
Yet, a Kiryat Malachi woman
in her early 20s who hopes to get
a minimum-wage job at a local
print shop, and whose sign-
painter father has been jobless
for five years, said she doesn't
think the economy will hurt Ne-
tanyahu in the city. 'Things have
always been bad in Kiryat
Malachi," she reasoned.
Likud's Meir Shitreet, former
mayor of the development town
of Yavne, is thought to have been
one of the most successful local
leaders of Israel's poor.
Just appointed by Netanyahu
to be the coalition whip, Shitreet
believes the government's bud-
get-cutting strategy will eventu- - /
ally turn things around for all
Israelis. "Inflation will go down,
the economy will stabilize, there
will be much more investment in
industry and this will create jobs,"
Shitreet predicted.
Netanyahu is Israel's most
economically learned and
conservative prime minister
ever. He promised a Reagan-
ite/Thatcherite economic "revo-
lution." It may succeed later, but -- \
for the last year, Israel's econo-
my, like the peace process, has
faltered.
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