The Wall Street Journal: Israel may rush to end the war on Iran due to the financial burden
The Wall Street Journal reported that the war against Iran is costing Israel, according to preliminary estimates, hundreds of millions of dollars per day, which could limit its ability to wage a long-term war.
The Wall Street Journal quoted experts as saying that the largest single cost incurred by Israel is the missiles needed to intercept missiles coming from Iran, which alone are estimated to cost between tens of millions and $200 million per day.
The use of munitions and aircraft also increases the cost of the war, not to mention the unprecedented damage to buildings.
So far, some estimates cited by the WSJ newspaper indicate that rebuilding or repairing the damage could cost Israel at least $400 million.
Israeli officials have said the attack could last for two weeks, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has shown no sign of stopping before his military campaign achieves all its goals, which include eliminating Iran’s nuclear program, ballistic missile production, and arsenal, according to a Wall Street Journal report.
Its noteworthy that Netanyahu is wanted by the International Criminal Court on charges of committing war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.
Karnit Flug, a former governor of the Bank of Israel and now a senior fellow at the Israel Democracy Institute, believes the main factor that will determine the true cost of the war is its duration.
The Wall Street Journal quoted her as saying that if the war lasts for a week, that is one thing, but if it lasts for two weeks or a month, that is a completely different matter.
Anat Peled, the WSJ correspondent from Tel Aviv, noted that Iran fired more than 400 missiles at Israel in the space of a week.
She said the missile defense system known as David’s Sling, developed jointly by Israel and the United States, can shoot down warplanes, short- to long-range missiles, and drones.
The cost of activating this defense system is approximately $700,000 each time, assuming it uses two interceptor missiles, which is usually the minimum, according to Yehoshua Kaliski, a researcher at the Tel Aviv-based Institute for National Security Studies.
Other military expenses include the cost of keeping dozens of warplanes—such as F-35 fighters—in the air for hours at a time, some 1,600 kilometers from Israeli territory.
According to Kaleski, one flight hour for each individual aircraft cost about $10,000, taking into account the cost of refueling and munitions, such as Joint Direct Attack Munitions (JDAM) and MK-84 heavy bombs.
For his part, Zvi Eckstein, who heads the Aron Institute for Economic Policy at Reichman University in Israel, said that the daily cost of a war on Iran far exceeds the cost of a war in the Gaza Strip or against Hezbollah in Lebanon.
A one-month war against Iran would cost about $12 billion.
According to estimates by the Aron Institute, a one-month war against Iran would cost approximately $12 billion.
Although Eckstein notes that Israeli military spending has increased since the start of the war, the Wall Street Journal correspondent cites unnamed economic experts who don’t anticipate an economic recession in Israel at this stage.
However, the Wall Street Journal emphasizes that large sectors of the Israeli economy have recently come to a standstill as a result of the Iranian strikes, with only workers in essential industries being called back to work, while many businesses, such as restaurants, have been closed.
Engineers confirmed that the destruction caused by Iran’s large ballistic missiles is unlike anything they have witnessed in Israel’s wars over recent decades.
Eyal Shalev, a structural engineer called in to assess the damage to civilian infrastructure, said hundreds of buildings were destroyed or severely damaged, and rebuilding or repairing them will cost hundreds of millions of dollars.
It’s estimated that repairing a single newly built skyscraper in central Tel Aviv damaged by Iranian attacks would cost at least tens of millions of dollars.
