The world's credit markets are clogged, a situation unprecedented in the capitalist era. And what about Tel Aviv? The captains of Israel's economy soothe the public: our banks are not "exposed" to the same degree as America's. But will the crisis pass us by? True, the United States was unique in making an industry out of financial speculation. But in the era of the global village, distances shorten. Wall Street determines the ups and downs of its Israeli equivalent, Ahad Ha'am (the name translates, ironically, as "One of the People"). The immune system of Israel's economy is weaker by far than America's, while its dependence on the latter is great.
That dependence is not just economic. It is also ideological. In the 1980s, Israel abandoned the worn-out Zionist-socialist creed in favor of an even older one, which produced two world wars and fascism. This is capitalism—but served up in modern dress, global and computer-based. Like post-Soviet Russia, Israel has privatized itself, selling a cooperative economy for peanuts to a few tycoons. Such tycoons have sprouted up among all nations and religions. Until the present crisis, they ran the global economy.
