Israel without Television

...currently grants Israel some $3 billion annually, of which $1.2 billion is direct nonmilitary cash aid...

...But suddenly the U.S...

...Nevertheless, the responsibility of prime ministers going back to Golda Meir was apparent: Organizationally, the Shin Beth is under the prime minister's office, and not knowing of such criminal actions was bad enough in itself...

...is a correspondent for Ha'aretz...

...Israelis were generally proud that their democracy ultimately produced the Landau Commission...

...At present the cost of real estate in the country is still very high, as is rent, but economists predict that when the effect of the worldwide developments reaches Israel, houses, land, businesses, and cars will drop in value...

...Jerusalem is carefully mum on the subject, but commentators have been warning that Israel will be no exception to the overall cutback...

...In addition, although the Landau Commission recommended that the judicial authorities grant requests for retrials where what was discovered is relevant, it disturbingly agreed that "limited and clearly delineated psychological and physical pressures may legitimately be exerted in the interrogation of those suspected of terrorism," and actually drafted precise guidelines for doing so...

...Moreover, with the value of the dollar dropping, real income from Israeli exports to the U.S...

...On the other hand, most people are reinvesting their justmatured bank shares (guaranteed by the government during Israel's own crash three years ago) in cost-of-living indexed government savings schemes instead of stocks or dollar-linked bonds...

...An indication of the tendency is the small, yet clear, widening of the gap between the official rate of foreign monies and their black-market rate...

...The main government—and public—worry, however, concerns U.S...

...Certainly it lessened the impact of the November 25 Arab guerrilla infiltration of an Army camp in the North that left six soldiers dead and seven wounded...

...Israel has neglected Latin American, Far Eastern and other potential trading partners because the U.S...

...involvement in the Persian Gulf, it is anticipated that military allocations for Israel (and Egypt) will remain high...

...Already, there are the first signs of the public showing a renewed interest in holding on to cash...

...In the civilian sector, a worldwide recession, and specifically a drop in American support and investments, would probably force a slowdown of newly resumed growth patterns here...

...In practice this means (illegally) holding more of the "stable" foreign currencies, such as Swiss francs, German marks and Japanese yen...

...The government, too, probably cannot count on finding U.S...

...Further, with Israel's economic crisis having been overcome in the past year, several of the advanced industries here had intended to seek investment funds for expansion in the United States...

...At the moment, though, Israelis are readjusting to having their televisions and radios back on the air...

...Optimists believe the tougher situation might after all force government ministers to start thinking seriously about genuine savings in their departments (instead of the easier yet more damaging cuts of certain services that, in any event, can provide only limited savings...

...The average Israeli has not yet changed his spending habits: Shops are still full, and foreign travel is booming...

...At the same time, no one here thinks military assistance will be wholly exempt from Congressional budgetary considerations...

...and Western Europe were easier to penetrate—thanks to Jewish importers, theU.S...

...But for the Israelis, who have been brought up believing their occupation is "different" because it is humane, the too easily ignored developments of the past two months hold something of a shock: Whereas in the past violent demonstrations and acts of terrorism were generally attributed to instructions from PLO centers abroad, now Army commanders are openly stating that most of the newest incidents have been initiated by individuals or groups in areas under their control...

...Although newspapers provided dramatic front-page stories of the glider-borne attack, of the growing Palestinian unrest in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, as well as of the decline in the value of the dollar and the stock market plunges around the world, hourly visual and oral reports of the latest disasters at home and abroad evidently have a greater effect than the fullest written accounts...

...FOCUSING ON THE ECONOMY Israel Without Television BY ELIAHU SALPETER Tel Aviv According to psychologists here, the 52-day strike of broadcast journalists that blacked out TV screens and silenced radios until November 27—except for meager evening "test transmissions" (to avoid union sanctions) by the new Second Channel, and the peppy yet rather superficial Army Radio news bulletins—resulted in Israelis sleeping more soundly...

...One third of this country's total exports—about $2.4 billion a year —goes to the United States...

...buyers at present for shares in the industries Likud has finally decided to begin denationalizing...

...To understand the meaning of these figures for this country's economy, one has to realize Israel's total exports are slightly over $7 billion annually, with roughly half added value...

...In any case, only a few days passed before the bulk of the public shifted its attention back to the worldwide stock market crashes, the fall of the dollar, and the possible consequences for Israel's improved economy...

...Local exporters have already begun to clamor for Jerusalem to guarantee a fixed rate of the dollar to the shekel...

...is less predictable...

...Given the increasing U.S...

...The U.S...

...has also been going down...

...These plans may now have to be revised...

...The blue-ribbon panel, composed of retired Chief Justice Moshe Landau, Former Mossad Chief General Yitzchak Hofi and State Comptroller Yaacov Maltz, found that since 1971 the Shin Beth has been committing perjury in proceedings related to the admissibility of confessions...

...Free Trade Area agreement and treaty links with the European Economic Community...

...He was able to completely reject an international peace conference advocated by his Labor partner in the national unity government without the counterpressure of public opinion aroused by the daily sight of Israeli border policemen and Army patrols confronting Palestinian students throwing stones, putting up barricades near their universities and tossing out occasional homemade fire bombs...

...The same would soon be true for the Israeli economy as a whole, which would have to do two things: learn to produce more efficiently, and find those special niches on the world markets where Israeli exports are uniquely able to compete with the giants...

...Similarly, the hopes of selling shares in such government monopolies as the Bezek Communication Company and the Israel Electric Corporation will have to be postponed...

...funds played an important role in his decision to press for the scrapping of the project to build Israel's own fighter plane, the Lavi...

...Defense Minister Yitzchak Rabin recently explained that the very question of available U.S...

...Thus the total American aid package is almost equal to Israel's net earnings from exports, while cash aid alone is about one third of the net export revenue...

...But the minority that responded to the October 30 report seriously was embarrassed that it took 16 years to force any action, and that the commission recommended opening a new page rather than starting a massive investigation and prosecution of the Shin Beth operatives involved in perjury...

...Washington's concentration on reducing the budget deficit and the likelihood of lower American tax revenues is expected to lead to reduced American foreign aid...

...Compared with other international trouble spots— from Central America to the Philippines —these are minor affairs: The large majority of the Arab population in the occupied territories continues its peaceful pursuits, including large-scale employment in construction, factories and service industries inside Israel proper...

...Another unpleasant result of a further international economic retreat may be the need to cut back on Israel's foreign currency reserves, now at a peak...

...It has been a matter of unwritten policy "to conceal interrogation methods, "the commission said, while noting that this was "not meant to convict innocent persons," and that "the political, judiciary and military authorities did not know of the Shin Beth practice...

...The assumption is that the loss of hundreds of billions of dollars by American investors will eventually reduce American consumption, especially of imported goods...

...Many intellectuals and commentators also were particularly surprised by the low-keyed public reaction to the findings of the Landau Commission, which investigated the methods and court testimony of the Shin Beth, Israel's domestic security service...

...Experts fear the electronics industry will be hardest hit, since it is to a great extent directed toward the American market...

...In the wake of the security breach along the northern border, it could wake them up to problems that go beyond the economy...

...The situation was a blessing for Prime Minister Yitzchak Shamir...

...In other words, government ministries, like other public services, would have to be restructured...

...Eliahu Salpeter, a regukir NL contributor...