I guess the US can cut off all aid to Israel now. What kind of "democracy" would accept taxpayer dollars from a third world country?

We are just in the eye of the storm, right now. Time has been bought with trillions of dollars, but that is all, and those wasted trillions have only added to the severity of the situation. Don't kid yourself. It's not over, yet. Not by a long shot.

It seems the US needs this military hi-tec "aid" more than ever, buying cheap advanced tec. in return.

Journalists and members of our bloated and pampered public sector are fairly insulated from this crisis. Anyone who actually contributes to making Israel better than a third world economy however depends on the US and Europe being healthy enough to afford our exports.

Is Ynet so desperate to fill its columns that it considers this drivel worth publishing? If Gefen is so desperate share in the economic crisis outside the country, I suggest he move there and try to get a job as a writer. Trust me, he'll suffer. Alternatively, I suggest a good shrink.

The global finacial crisis we've experienced thus far is only the foreshock, or if it's the main tremor, an aftershock is to follow after a period of relative calm/stability and even a short term uptrend in the markets is to be expected and what we're actually seeing right now. Markets move in (Elliot) waves and the powerful downtrend we experienced as a crisis will most definitely hit us again. Perhaps Israel will be better off than many other nations like before, but we will still feel it.

Since Israeli banks lent responsibly on credit cards and motgages there was no fantasy boom here and consequwently no bust

You are absolutely right. And... journalists like this one can go on writing stupid articles and get paid for their BS.

you are way too nice!!

U.S. aid to Israel of $2.62 billion represents only 1.6% of Israel’s GDP. A next point of interest is that all of the aid given to Israel by the US is military aid. That’s right, ALL of it is military aid. Following an initiative that was introduced by Benjamin Netanyahu when he was Prime Minister between June 1996 to July 1999, civilian aid was steadily reduced and completely ended in 2008. More facts and not opinion are at .. http://tinyurl.com/usaidtoisrael Unlike the US and the UK, neither Europe which is now recovering from its recession (caused by the US) nor Israel offered people 125% mortgages etc. Mike

http://business.globaltimes.cn/world/2009-07/442525.html Sorry, the writer of the article is fundamentally correct. Martin

i love it... and people who have been recently to Israel can agree with most of it. i never saw so many new big cars in this country like now. the other day at the airport was crowded like tickets were for free and not even starting to mention the duty free shopping pick up line on my way back. the restaurants and cafes are full, and it's not all tourists and the hotels at the dead sea hotels can afford to charge a rip off amount of money for one night... there is no crisis in this country... and the few who lost their jobs in high tech will get new jobs if they are any good...

It's slow and stupid. With media sources like this it's no wonder Israel's image is so tainted. I sure hope Ynet's Hebrew site is better than this.

We have the Prime Minister to thank - for when he was Finance Minister, privatization, reduction in child allowances forcing more people to get jobs, economic growth, stability in retirement accounts, etc...