IASPS

Quarterly Report
Fall 1999

Making a Difference

Comments of the President

The Director's Column

IASPS in the Information Age

Citizens Against Government Waste 




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The Koret Fellows Program is only six years old and it has already spawned a community of "freedom fighters" outside of its hallowed walls at IASPS-Jerusalem. As the lead story in this Quarterly reports, a Policy Studies produced by one of IASPS's first Koret Fellows is now part of the curriculum of an economic course taught at Touro College's Jerusalem branch. What is even more rewarding is that this course is being taught by one of Koret's most outstanding former Fellows, Amir Etzioni. As Alvin Rabushka, the director of IASPS's Economic Division described it, "In six short years the program is paying off in a way that will reverberate throughout the social and economic fabric of Israel exponentially. This is what one might term the `trickle down' effect of good training.''

But the true sign of the success of the Koret Fellows Program as envisioned by the president of IASPS, Robert J. Loewenberg, is that the Fellows themselves do more than espouse and teach the principles of economic freedom. "It has always been the Institute's goal, and I believe the Koret Foundation's as well, to go beyond the individual and to create a community of like-minded young, well-educated Israelis who would come together to fight for freedom within the legitimate political and policy arenas," Loewenberg stated. "It is imperative that these young people now `take to the streets,' as it were, walking in and around the corridors of power and among the working people to do more than expound upon, teach, illustrate and preach about economic freedom. Now it is time to organize and create institutions for freedom." 

And that is exactly what has occurred. In an atmosphere of collegiality, respect and sheer excitement at an Alumni get-together in honor of Rabushka's recent trip to Israel, Udi Menirav announced his intention to found, with the help of several other former Koret Fellows, a private grass roots organization appropriately named "Citizens of Israel Against Government Waste." Menirav, a former Koret Fellow of three years, described the soon-to-be formed organization as a wholly private, not-for-profit entity that will "seek to educate and galvanize a large segment of the Israeli population that is fed up with the wanton waste of government expenditures but has not yet had an institutional framework within which to act."

Menirav, and several other former Fellows who spoke in favor of such an organization, made the point that today there are organizations that pursue their own social goals, almost all of which are centered around getting a bigger piece of the social welfare pie.

"In Israel we have the industrialists' associations, all aimed at getting more subsidies and pushing the Central Bank for greater devaluations and lower interest rates; we have senior citizen groups, immigrant groups, racial groups, physically handicapped groups, labor and environmental organizations and many others, all of which are chartered to demand money and access to taxpayer funds," he explained. "It is time that Israel has a voice for the hard working middle class and those from all walks of life aspiring to better themselves through their own making - a voice not demanding greater government expenditures but rather less and more rational expenditures." 

Rabushka and Loewenberg, both beaming with pride, encouraged this effort and pointed out that in the U.S. there are many such organizations, many of which play a critical role in the public discussion and policies regarding the proper role and size of government.

"The education and training we have received here at the Institute will be one of the most valuable tools we will have to make this effort a success," Menirav stated. "Israelis want freedom no less than any other people; our problem is that we are bombarded from infancy with the notion that government penetrates into all aspects of life here in Israel as a necessary by-product of life in the Middle East. 

"The Koret program has taught us that the facts and logic dictate otherwise. We have learned that our success in the Middle East, and indeed in the international marketplace, depends upon economic independence and freedom, not just at the national level, but at the level of the individual as well.'' 

Cover Story

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