I didn’t think it was possible for me to despise a US diplomat as much as I did Nuland, but Blinken is right up there now.
Greenleaf
joined 2 years ago
The War is Costing the Israeli Economy $600M a Week Due to Absences of Palestinian Workers
The ongoing war between Israel and Hamas has laid bare the Israeli economy’s heavy reliance on Palestinian labor, with the absence of these workers costing the Israeli economy an estimated $600 million per week, equivalent to about 6% of its weekly GDP.
Prior to the outbreak of hostilities on October 7, 2023, around 100,000 Palestinians from the West Bank held permits to work in Israel, primarily in construction and agriculture. However, shortly after the initial Hamas attacks, Israel restricted entry for these Palestinian employees.
To fill the gaps, Israel has recruited workers from India and Sri Lanka, but the labor shortages have still taken a major toll. In Q4 2023, the Israeli economy contracted by 19.4% compared to the same period in 2022, the biggest drop in nearly four years. Private consumption plunged 26.9%, business investment fell 67.8%, and exports declined 18.3%
It’s all-encompassing (haven’t finished it yet though). The economist’s background is with BDS but BDS is really part of the conversation. He’s more of an economist analyst focusing on Israel and Palestine.
I made a post about this in the podcasts comm, but I think the news heads here should be aware of it. The latest episode of Electronic Intifada interviews a political economist involved in BDS. They cover the possible economic collapse of Israel. Really interesting stuff.
It’s so strange that two major chip making entities are Taiwan and Israel. There has to be some connection to US imperialism but not sure what it is.
These are good people, and I'm not just talking about the average Palestinian, I'm talking about Hamas
Fuckin’ A
And in case any libs try and deny this… Hamas doesn’t have to be “moral” to do this. One of the biggest obstacles to a free Palestine is the Israeli dehumanization of Palestinians. Hamas has every incentive to try and show humanity, if for no reason than their own goals.
Now, it’s not likely to move the needle much among Israelis, who seem to have gone fully Nazi now. And it’s not fair that Hamas has to be perfect while the IOF can do things that would make the SS blush; but that’s reality at the moment.
What do we make of Hamas accepting the UN ceasefire agreement? The fact that Blinken is pushing it makes me feel like it can’t be good… but Hamas did accept it and I don’t think they would abide an agreement with major poison pills in it.
Reminder that “Stockholm Syndrome” isn’t real and isn’t recognized as such. It all comes from one instance (and apologies, I’m going off of memory) of a woman who was kidnapped but she didn’t want the pigs to intervene because she knew they would make the situation worse and would be more likely to kill her than work the situation out (which she was working on). Later, a psychologist evaluated her and was basically “well that’s just silly to not trust cops, you’re a woman and irrational so clearly you must have fallen in love with your captors”. And that’s literally how we got “Stockholm Syndrome”.
Yup. I watched the shit out of that Garfield cartoon and thought I was hilarious. But I was also like 9…
He was a radlib who was ok I guess on some domestic issues. More in the mold of like Jamaal Bowman or something.
But he was always a big time Israel supporter, I remember the general gist of people describing him is “progressive but pretty bad on Israel”
It’s not wishful thinking. Ilan Pappe is expecting Israeli society to collapse within 2 years or so. These are incredibly serious socio-economic problems. And it’s easy to forget, Israel is small. Population wise it’s like Virginia. And it’s heavily dependent on outside resources. These are factors that make a country less economically resilient. And I don’t think Israel’s pay pig (the US) just cutting them a blank check every quarter can necessarily stop it.
That said, I have to recognize my own bias in wanting this to happen very much. It always feels like capitalism and imperialism are just about to collapse, when they always seem to have another trick up their sleeve.