19.8–13.8: The week of deals in Likud, growth data, and delays at Ben Gurion Airport

Likud primaries: Work is not rewarded

The Likud primaries held this week may lead to the ousting from the Knesset of no fewer than 17 serving ministers and Knesset members. The party's election system forces candidates to close deals with party functionaries and sector representatives, such as employees of Israel Aerospace Industries, the Airports Authority, El Al, farmers, and taxi drivers. In such a situation, the parliamentary activity of the MKs for the public or even just for sectors close to the government did not help them.

Thus, two chairmen of important economic committees will likely be pushed out of the next Knesset: Finance Committee Chairman Hanoch Milwidsky, who was responsible for the wholesale transfer of political and coalition funds, but also tried to add municipalities in the north and south to the list of government benefit recipients and help reservists, and Economics Committee Chairman David Bitan (ranked 23rd after reservations, which is borderline according to polls), who led a stubborn fight against the dairy reform of Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, claiming it would collapse the dairy farming industry in Israel. Also absent from the next Knesset will be the agricultural lobby representative MK Sasson Guetta, who led the law to cancel the quota system planning in the egg industry and fix the existing situation until 2042, and the chairwoman of the Committee for the Rights of the Child, Kati Sheetrit. So the bottom line of Likud's 'celebration of democracy' is simple: only MKs who acted behind the scenes with the 'deal-closers' and stakeholders will continue to sit for another term in the plenum. // Tzvi Zrahia

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Technion is out: The grade that matters to the minister

Two events that occurred this week well reflect the importance attributed to the higher education system during the term of Education Minister Yoav Kisch. The first is the Technion's drop for the fourth consecutive time in the Shanghai ranking of the world's best universities and the institution's ousting from the top 100, and the second is the minister and chairman of the Council for Higher Education reaching sixth place in the Likud primaries (12th when weighting the reservations). Why? Because Kisch's position on the Likud list is the main grade according to which the Education Minister's office operated in the last term. The deterioration in the Technion's status has various causes, including the strengthening of competing institutions, but it is clear that the government's policy of 'drying out' the universities, in which Kisch is a member, while other governments invest in their academic institutions, did not help. The boycott of Israeli academia, which Kisch did not deal with at all, also harms its status. On the horizon are the negotiations for the renewal of the European Union's Horizon agreements, which allow Israel membership in the world's most prestigious research grant club. In order not to be expelled from there, a government is needed that wants to be part of the family of nations and is proud of its universities. A necessary condition for this is also an Education Minister who is interested in the future of education and not just in his status. // Shahar Ilan

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CBS fights for the truth

This week we learned again about the importance of professional and independent institutions after the Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS) noticed that in recent quarters an increasing part of the Israeli GDP composition is produced abroad — about 6% of it. Israel earns taxes from such products because it has intellectual property rights over them, but in practice, they are not produced in the country and not by Israelis. The meaning of this figure is that the growth in the economy in the last half-year was only 1% (compared to 3.2% reflected by the more general figure published so far), and the growth in 2025 was only 2.1% (compared to 3.5%). All this means that the narrative of recovery and return to economic routine is not correct and that local activity is very far from realizing its potential. Although the CBS is not a policy-making body and is composed mainly of statisticians and not economists, its people understood that this is a phenomenon that must be reflected to the public, and even emphasized. This is despite the fact that these data are inconvenient for the government during an election period because they undermine the narrative of rapid recovery that they are trying to sell to the public. It should be assumed that no one would have criticized the CBS staff if they had not produced this new series of data, but their decision to produce and highlight it is an expression of professionalism and a sense of commitment to the public. And that is not a small thing in the current political climate. // Shlomo Teitelbaum

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Financial brokerage industry requires more severe punishment

The Capital Market Authority imposed a fine this week in the amount of 10.5 million shekels on Neemanut Insurance Agency, a company that misled customers and induced them to withdraw pension funds early, which usually means something simple: the destruction of their future. So what if they pay 35% tax? So what if the customer is sure they are talking to their insurance company? So what if the same company charges an exorbitant commission for an action that can be done alone, and rummages through the saver's personal area as if it were their underwear drawer, and all this without a license for pension marketing? The jungle of the financial brokerage industry is completely open, and the Capital Market Authority — the poorest regulator in terms of budgets, standards, and enforcement powers — is required to fight it alone. A fine of 10.5 million shekels is a step in the right direction, but it will not prevent the next failure. To stop this 'Wild West', a drastic tightening of criminal punishment, increased public awareness, and above all — the dismantling of the distorted incentive structure that feeds this industry of extortion is required. // Shaked Green Arava

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Delay is not a decree from heaven, but a product of poor planning

How do you know August has arrived? You buy books for the children for the next year, go to the beach, and of course — fly abroad and before that receive a notification about a flight delay. As Israelis fly more, delays increase, and this summer Israelis are reporting delays that cause entire families to spend their first night of vacation on the carpets of Ben Gurion Airport. We live in a reality where everything is delayed. The train is delayed, our shipment is delayed, and messages such as 'We are sorry for the delay, your request will be handled as soon as possible' are already sent automatically by artificial intelligence as if someone cares. And there are the particularly stressful delays. No one wants to receive a delay in leaving the country or to be delayed by a policeman. Parents also have another pressure — what if the child has a developmental delay? All these delays are a nuisance that contradicts the Israeli character that wants everything fast and now. And yet, who among us has not announced that they are delayed a little? And when we want to focus on something and delve into it, it is often said 'Let's dwell on this for a moment'. Delay in Israeli society is also a pause to pay attention to what is important but almost escaped us. We even try to convince ourselves sometimes that 'every delay is for the best', as if we had the patience of a Japanese person. At the end of the day, the excessive delays at Ben Gurion Airport are a sign of everything the state does not dwell on — because they are caused by the prolonged parking of American refueling planes at the airport, which is an expression of the depth of the lack of strategic planning of Israel and the United States in the Middle East. Added to this is the lack of planning by the Ministry of Transport, and also poor service consciousness of Israeli airlines that do not dwell on any customer. One can hope that our reaction to all this is perhaps delayed, but it will come. // Dor Saar-Man