The True Story of the Free Processing Zone
First
point:
The Free Zone they killed
Six years ago this
Institute did some research (See Policy
Studies Number 10: Free
Processing Zones, in this site) showing that unemployment is a
nagging Israeli problem. The reason is Israel, the last surviving
communist
economy in the world, is able to prop up its failing businesses, thus pay
salaries and "profits" because Israel's miracle of socialism is US
aid and
other free money (see Quarterly Report, Vol. 5, No 1) totaling
about 10% of GDP or $10 billion annually.
We suggested a plan to employ the best and the brightest, get Americans to
invest but still not to threaten the system: A free export processing zone.
The act passed, after two years of lobbying by American businessmen
including Larry Tisch, Sy Syms and 30 others, who invested $7 million
marketing it to 60 businesses who agreed to come.
The socialist elites opposed: the nomen klatura, Israeli business leaders
Dan Propper, Dov Lautman, and Dan Gillerman. (Note: some in the Labor Union
were for it!) Although it passed the Knesset, these people killed the
legally passed law. The American businessmen, unbelieving, have apparently
left the field.
Second
point:
The writer of the Globes
story was among the most belligerent opponents of
the zone (the Israeli nomen klatura essentially "own" the press).
The
Institute and businessmen had convinced the politicians that the zone would
help solve the unemployment problem.
Third
point:
See on this site our study
by former Koret IASPS Fellow Shlomi Shuv on the government's handling of
"unemployment". (See Policy
Studies Number 36: Employment Bureaus in Israel, in this site)
