Jerusalem Day and Israel's Economic Success: By Moshe Feiglin

Manhigut Yehudit
Turning the State of Jews into the Jewish State - Moshe Feiglin

22 Iyar, 5767 - May 10, 2007

Jerusalem Day helped me to solve a question that had been bothering me for a number of months. Why is Israel's economy doing so well? I am not the only person amazed at the gap between the collapse of all of Israel's government mechanisms and the success of its economy. This question is asked time and again in the economy columns. Even the Governor of the Bank of Israel related to it in recent interviews. So how is it that when the security system is collapsing, and the justice system is collapsing, and the police force is collapsing, and the political system is collapsing, and the media is no more than popular political entertainment, and the academic and cultural elite offer no actual solutions -- the economy is so robust? How is it that although the majority of Israelis do not believe that the country will continue to exist in another 20-30 years -- the economy is one of the strongest in the Western world, economic growth is steady and investors from the world over are knocking on our doors?

Jerusalem Day solved the riddle for me, because I once again studied the unfolding of the Six Day War. Whoever does a bit of research on the Six Day War discovers that it was a successful war with little pre-planning: Due to a series of miracles, the Higher Command did not prevent the forces in the field from advancing.

An interesting study discovered that when the doctors are on strike, the death rate goes down. In the Six Day War, Chief of Staff Rabin collapsed and was hospitalized in a psychiatric ward. In other words, the army had no Chief of Staff. The opening act of the battle for Jerusalem was the liberation of Armon Hanatziv at Jerusalem's southern tip. According to Military Historian Dr. Uri Milstein, it was a battle completely initiated by a Staff Officer named Amos Ne'eman, who simply was tired of waiting for General Dayan's orders, and decided on his own to order his troops to advance. That is how the entire southern end of Jerusalem was captured. The rest of the battles also took place without an orderly chain of command. In effect, nobody in the Higher Command wanted to fight the Six Day War. Ultimately, the Old City of Jerusalem was liberated despite General Dayan's insistent resistance.

So what is the connection between the liberation of Jerusalem and Israel's economy? It's really the same story. For an economy to succeed, it must enjoy as little interference as possible. All the government systems are collapsing. The Minister of Finance is in the process of resigning, the Prime Minister who replaced him is busy with the Winograd Commission and with everything but the economy, Amir Peretz, who loves to drown the economy in a quagmire, is stuck in the Defense Ministry and Labor party primaries. In short, nobody is interfering with the Jewish people as they work and progress. And that is an entirely reasonable formula for success.