Israel’s economic outlook is extraordinary.
Hatred of Israel is always antisemitism masquerading as anti-Zionism or some defective "factual" conclusion. Yes, Israel receives $3.8 billion in US military aid. Well over 90 percent must be spent in the US to buy American-made gear. So Israel does benefit, but so do those amazing workers at Lockheed, Boeing, and other defense contractors. Palmer Luckey was recently in Israel as he sees a potentially important market for his advanced new weapons systems. The US gets lots of Israeli data as well as military tech. The haters might want to thank Israel for recently teaching American fighters how it reduced battle casualties from 15 percent to 7.1 percent.
But there is much more. Every important tech company has an outpost in Israel. NVIDIA is building a huge new campus. Meta, Apple, Microsoft and others all have Israeli researchers working in order to improve products and increase their value to stockholders. When an Israeli breakthrough makes these companies more valuable, you and your stock portfolio might just benefit from this little country.
It was recently reported that Israel expects future GDP growth of 7.5 percent next year after 5.6 percent in 2026. Israel is the only OECD country with a birth rate higher than replacement; it actually has the highest number of any of the advanced industrial countries. Israelis have a strong affiliation with religious practice and kosher food consumption. In many ways, Israel of today is like America in the 1950s and 1960s: religiously traditional, producing babies, successful in business, and militarily a powerhouse. Israel has passed the U.K. in per capita GDP at $69,800 — placing it 20th in the world for this category. As in the US, Bibi Netanyahu — like Donald Trump — has his challenges in showing his electorate that the economy is actually doing quite well.
But should Israel be doing so well? Hamas and its parent Iran thought that the October 7 butchery would be the end of the country. They envisioned Hezbollah coming down from the north, the Houthis firing rockets from afar, and Israel collapsing under the weight of multiple fronts and an element of surprise. There is no question that, for reasons that need further explanation, the IDF and the Israeli Air Force took hours to respond, during which Hamas cretins raped, tortured, and murdered without enough people or weapons to stop them. But Israel did get its act together and offered Hamas a way out: give us the hostages and those who murdered our people, and we’re done. The Palestinians never miss an opportunity to be decimated, so the terrorists refused. Gaza is largely destroyed because of Hamas’ intransigence; don’t blame it on the IDF. If one wants a general scorecard:
- Hamas is not finished and appears to be regrouping. That said, 70 percent of Gaza is now in Israeli hands. 4,000 of those who entered Israel to rape and plunder are now in the past tense. The other 2,000 might want to get their affairs in order. The state recently built a center for trials and hangings of convicted Nukhba terrorists.
- Hezbollah is also not dead, but it has been effectively driven from southern Lebanon. Hatred by non-Shiite sectors of Lebanese society has only grown. The Lebanese Army is as worthless as UNIFIL soldiers.
- Iran has been damaged militarily and economically. Everyone expects the coup de grace after the American elections this week. A US Air Force C5 recently was seen landing in Israel. It was not bringing Halloween candy.
Israel was accused by Vice President JD Vance of having no friends other than the US. Apparently the Greeks, Cypriots and Emiratis don’t understand English because they have been openly growing their military and economic relations with Israel. Sure, you have the haters in Egypt and Jordan; they are loser countries that have not contributed a toothbrush to mankind for the past 1,500 years. But the smaller and more nimble countries are working with Israel to increase their posture against Islamic threats from Iran and Turkey. Israel and Greece just finished a joint naval exercise. Israel recently received its most advanced Dolphin submarine from Germany. Israeli Iron Dome systems, whose missiles are now being made additionally in Arkansas, were transferred to Dubai during the active phase of the war with Iran. There is at least one base of US planes in southern Israel, because I saw Pete Hegseth standing in front of an A-10 at Israel’s Uvda Air Base.
Palantir CEO Alex Karp recently said that the US and China are the artificial intelligence or superintelligence superpowers, with a mention of Israel as being a player, as compared to all other countries. Europe is flushing itself down the toilet with uncontrolled immigration and socialist policies of economic stagnation. They destroyed the nuclear power to please the climate gods, like Mao destroyed farm equipment so as to show how much steel China could produce annually. I recently had to change a propane canister, and it still has the British reverse thread introduced when they ruled here and over much of the world. Today, they are waiting for their turn to be destroyed like France, Spain, and Italy. Like in The Three Stooges, their police arrest the person harmed and not the harming immigrant.
Israel definitely has its challenges. I am writing this just after the elections, and the results were good for the Likud, but nobody has a clear path to setting up a government that will run the joint for four years. Will there be a new government, or will a caretaker Netanyahu team continue until new elections in the spring of next year? Will its policies help continue Israel’s military and economic growth or act as an impediment due to an inability to pass budgets and laws? Israel becoming a powerhouse is no slam-dunk, but when many of your neighbors want to destroy you, you don’t have time to worry about who uses which bathroom and what pronouns one should put at the end of his email. There are many stories of people dropping everything and running — even in their pajamas — to fight in Gaza when the war started. Israelis are serious because they don’t have the luxury to go to College U for seven years and end up in debt and with a degree in the Theory of Garbage.
Because of rampant Israel-hatred, it is rare that people speak honestly about the Middle East. There are clear exceptions like Donald Trump, Elon Musk, Marco Rubio, the aforementioned Alex Karp, and Bobby Kennedy, Jr. Though RFK, Jr. is officially the head of HHS, he recently discussed Arabs and the Middle East with a clarity that is rarely seen. He said that 500 million Arabs contribute nothing to the progress of the world. He made it clear that it was the Arabs clearing out hundreds of thousands of Jews when Israel was formed that is closer to “genocide” than Israel giving its Arab population the vote — and 15 percent of the Knesset’s seats. One of the major reasons why there is no peace here is that people don’t want to be called racist for honestly saying what the score is. Genocide! While the Gazan population grows. Famine! While two million tons of aid were delivered into Gaza, if they have any prominent health problem, it is being too fat. Bill Clinton only required 30 years to admit that the Palestinians (whom he euphemistically calls “Hamas” — they weren’t at the talks back then) did not want a state but rather wanted to kill Jews and destroy Israel. Fortunately, Trump and Rubio call it as it is. They can keep Israel on a short leash, but they understand that Israel is one of the good guys.
May the US and Israel enjoy safe and prosperous years and decades to come. And may the haters all dye their hair blue and scream at the moon.