Astonishingly, Arava will spend almost $300 million for the 58MW capacity, though the regular cost of such installations is $1–2 per Watt, or 3–5 times lower. The cost increase helps the company to claim subsidies.

Meanwhile, homeowners are refused the right to install solar panels on their houses because of the lack of subsidy funds.

Erdan knows very well that the government won’t leave Gaza without electricity, and thus he can engage safely in nationalist rhetoric. But more to the point, why should we cut electricity to Gaza? They can quickly bring diesel power plants, and in a few months build a grid from Egypt. Thus Israel would lose a lucrative monopoly, while remaining unable to punish Hamas’ voters economically.

The answer to power shortages in Israel does not lie in an embargo on Gaza, but in demonopolizing the industry, bringing in investments, and building new plants, and lifting the ban on developing nuclear power.

In fact, no one is willing to engage in military skirmishes over such a low-yield field. Only the Israeli oligarch Nimrodi is willing to bid for that license because he would receive free military support from the IDF.

In fact, Israel has huge tracts of empty land, including many relatively green areas. The government, however, engages in predatory zoning practices to benefit agricultural, real estate, and banking lobbies.

Agriculture in Israel is economically inefficient, as in any other country, and only survives due to massive subsidies, including reduced water prices. Many kibbutzim long ago abandoned agriculture. Yet the government restricts the conversion of arable land to housing projects. Red tape in real estate development adds to the problem. Altogether, the severe housing shortage keeps prices artificially high.

On other hand, Israel enjoys very low mortgage interest rates, which make monthly payments relatively affordable.

Any sane person should ask, why go through such a cumbersome procedure for such negligible benefit? With five-year lifespan, the replacement would save about $1.5 million, which is only the cost of about 2,000 computers. Replacing tens of thousands of computers is irrational.

Thus, self-imposed restriction and silly concern about White House opinion cost us business with 60 countries and two thirds of our export volume.

In terms of military export volume, we lost significantly to Russia, with 9.6 vs 12 billion dollars, respectively.

It is well-known that gold and uranium are not present in Israeli soil in viable quantities.

So the entire enterprise is a transparent attempt to boost Gulliver’s stock price.

The rule is common sense: it is highly questionable that society should provide free daycare at all, and totally unfathomable why free daycare should be offered to families who do not work and therefore have ample time to spend with their children.

The government’s decision to cancel the employment requirement ostensibly serves the haredim, but in reality it does not. Many haredim do work, and may of them either keep their children at home or send them to private religious schools. So the employment requirement mostly targeted Arabs who live on welfare and receive child care subsidies. The government had sought to restore the benefit to the Arabs.