Haaretz: Netanyahu and Smotrich are leading Israel to economic ruin as well

The Israeli Haaretz newspaper considered that the war and the risk of escalation with Iran and Hezbollah are the main reason for reducing Israel’s credit rating, noting that they are not the only reason.

International credit rating agencies have downgraded Israel’s credit rating in recent months, and have given negative outlooks for the future, meaning there is a risk of another downgrade.

Israel is already paying the price for the downgrade by taking out debt in financial markets to finance the war at high interest rates, which will weigh heavily on its budget in the coming years, according to Haaretz.

Speaking about other reasons, Haaretz pointed in its editorial, Friday, to the policies of the Prime Minister of the occupation, Benjamin Netanyahu, and his Finance Minister, Bezalel Smotrich, noting that the government should have set a responsible budget for the year 2025, due to the continuation of the war and its high costs.

The responsible budget, according to Haaretz newspaper’s definition, includes a plan to reduce debt, reduce unnecessary ministries, stop the looting of coalition funds, and take necessary tax measures.

Haaretz confirmed that Netanyahu isn’t prepared to take any decision that would jeopardize the stability of his government, and that he prefers to postpone preparing the budget to the future and expose the economy to danger.

As for Smotrich, who is supposed to be more responsible in the economic sphere, he is evading his duty and is busy providing coalition partners with large budgets, developing settlements and illusions about settlements in Gaza and a security belt in Lebanon.

Haaretz considered that the costs of Smotrich’s ideas don’t concern him, nor does he care about the credit rating downgrade.

Smotrich is failing to perform his duty and destabilizing the Israeli economy when he doesn’t move to present a responsible and courageous budget in the near term.

Haaretz recalled that one of the principles of the Israeli security concept since the days of David Ben-Gurion is to fight short battles, for various reasons, including the damage to the economy, considering that Netanyahu and Smotrich are leading to economic ruin when they prolong the war and frustrate the efforts to recruit the conservatives Haredim jews.

Haaretz concluded, that in addition to its many failures, Netanyahu’s (salvation) government is also working against Israel’s economic interests, and if it’s not changed, Israel will find itself in economic ruin.