One Way Israel is Benefiting from the Iraq War

[Osmium14]

January 10, 2005 in BusinessWeek: page.30 an article by Neal Sandler in Jerusalem.

I thought this article was interesting….This article is stating that "Israel’s economy is on the mend." Basically this blurb discusses the rising GDP for Israel after "the worst recession in the country’s history."

Israel had a negative GDP growth in 2001 & 2002 and yes after the "Iraqi War" started in 2003 Israel ended that year with a 1% positive GDP and in 2004 a 4% GDP increase and is projected to remain the same in 2005.

The article states that the prevention of suicide attacks and the partially completed fence, which runs through mostly near the pre 1967 border has provided security for a business and tourism boom. *What they are leaving out is that with world’s focus is in Iraq, Israel has quietly benefited financially due to the American troops being in Iraq. *Go figure*

Here are some FYI's Israel’s jobless rate is 10% *(no break down of Palestinian vs, Israeli specific numbers). Israel has one of the lowest inflation rates globally & the best exchange rates for the shekel against the dollar. *One could conclude to pull Israel out of a recession have its Big Brother go to war to pump up the economy.

[Thinker]

Israel had a negative GDP growth in 2001 & 2002 and yes after the "Iraqi War" started in 2003 Israel ended that year with a 1% positive GDP and in 2004 a 4% GDP increase and is projected to remain the same in 2005.

Many nations went through a recession in 2001 and 2002 because of the dot-com bust. Israel has a large tech sector, so it's no surprise they were particularly hard-hit by the dot-com bust. Hence, a recession.

In 2003 and 2004, most of those same nations' economies started to recover. Israel was no different.

Their recession and subsequent recovery had nothing to do with Middle East wars. It all had to do with the dot-com bust and the subsequent recovery.

[Kamandi]

It's hard to believe Israel had adminstrative input into the Iraq war. The primary beneficiaries were globalized private contractors incorporated in the US - Bechtel, Halliburton, Chevron, Lockheed-Martin, etc - several of whom can boast of having had Bush (and Bush Sr. and Reagan) staff members in their governance.

The idea they gave more of a shit about Israel than their long-desired hopes to control the Persian Gulf and install a gov't acquiescent to the privatization of Iraqi industries and public services seems pretty laughable.