Prof. Trachtenberg's warning: "We have economic strengths, but the reserves are being depleted"

"As a nation, we have infinite reserves of personal and collective resilience. We have economic and financial strengths and support from the US and the world communities, but these reserves are being depleted. Around us, our friends are losing patience, like the residents of the north and the south who were evacuated." This is what Prof. Manuel Trachtenberg said this morning at the "Policy, Economy and Society – How to Avoid a Disaster" conference, in the organization of graduates of the budget department at the Treasury.

According to him, "What has changed in the last five years is only the slope. The rate of deterioration. The first phase was 5 election systems, years of political and social divisions. The second phase – from the moment the current government was established until the October 7 disaster. A gloomy period painted in the color of a regime revolution. The phase The third is since October 7. We thought we had reached the bottom, but it turns out that there is no bottom in the country. On the one hand, the country is bleeding, but the traffic jams are still full. The goals in the world. A normal reality that corresponds to the stupid statement as a step away from victory."

According to him, "We need to shatter the illusion that we can continue to postpone decisions in politics, security, and the economy. We are paying a terrible price for procrastination since October 7, a terrible price for the unwillingness to face the Palestinian issue with courage. We must decide who we are as a country. We must establish that Israel is a democratic country , embraces pluralistic Judaism, advocates a moral market economy."

After his participation in the conference, Prof. Manuel Trachtenberg spoke with Anat Davidov on radio 103fm. "I meant the reserves of the Israeli society, to meet the challenges we face," he said. "We are in the longest war that Israel has ever had since the War of Independence, which still does not see its end. This thing has a profound effect on the economy and society in Israel. The argument is that even when Israeli society mobilizes and engages in a tremendous effort, it also has an element of fatigue and we are beginning to feel it." .

"This is expressed in the fact that I think the willingness of the families who bear the heavy burden of the husband or wife being in the reserves and some evacuating and the prices are rising, this burden is too heavy to bear and there is an erosion in the ability to bear it."

"There is a process here that is dangerous. You spoke earlier about the boycott from Turkey, it is true that this is not the end of this matter, but there is a process here that is very dangerous. As soon as a country that is in NATO, which is so large and influential, imposes a boycott on the State of Israel, it has meanings".

"Every war, whatever it is, has costs, first of all in human lives and also an economic cost, what's the difference? The difference is that in previous wars it had a beginning and an end. Even the Yom Kippur war, it lasted 19 days until the ceasefire. Today we are in seven months of war and the prices we Payers are huge and do not see the end. The ability of Israeli society to bear such an effort is high, but it is not infinite. The government acts as if it is some kind of infinite reservoir."