RUTHFULLY YOURS

This figure is by necessity bound to be incomplete, but it’s a snapshot of what an economic disaster the endless un-peace process has been for Israel. Aside from the loss of life, the spending involved is staggering for such a small country.

As part of Monday night’s budget debate (the budget barely passed a first reading)  conservative Likud Member of Knesset Moshe Feiglin spoke and announced that he has found NIS 453 billion that have disappeared from Israel’s treasury in the nearly 20 years since the Oslo Accords were signed. As you read this, please keep in mind that what Feiglin is doing is comparing Israel’s budgets for the last 20 years to the 26 years before the Oslo Accords were signed (1967-93), during which these items in the budget were not necessary or spent.

Feiglin was forced to stop in the middle, but here’s what I got from it.

86 billion shekels in Israeli government transfers to Gaza in 20 years
28.5 billion additional shekels for General Security Service protection since Oslo was signed
13.7 billion shekels for deploying border police in Judea and Samaria since Oslo was signed (they weren’t needed there before)
87 billion additional shekels for increased IDF deployment in Judea and Samaria since Oslo was signed
68 billion shekels in additional security expenses for restaurants, malls etc. since Oslo was signed (there were no suicide bombings in Israel before Oslo was signed)
20 billion shekels for roads that detour around Arab villages since Oslo was signed (there was no need for them before)
4.7 billion for building the separation walls since Oslo was signed (there was no need for them before)
3.5 billion shekels in compensation to families of murdered terror victims
129 billion shekels for Operation Defensive Shield

This can be written off as the cost of peace, but there is no peace. This is the cost of an ongoing war caused by the illusion of peace.