| Immediately upon election, the Netanyahu Government began
bringing fiscal policies to bear in order to balance the state budget
in the wake of two years of deviations from the budget deficit
targets. Within this framework, an unprecedented cut of NIS 8
billion was made in the 1997 budget, and an additional cut of NIS
2.3 billion was made in the 1998 budget. As a result of the cuts, the government was able to bring the budget deficit down to 2.8% of the GDP in 1997 as compared to 3.6% in 1996 and 3.8% in 1995. A further tightening of the 1998 budget will bring the government's stated goal of budget deficit reduction (also written into law) to 2.4% of the GDP, and on the correct phased path to reduce the budget deficit to 1.5% by 2001. Fiscal and monetary policies also contributed to the contracting of Israel's current accounts deficit at the end of 1997 to $3.6 billion, equal to 3.6% of the GDP. This is down from $5.3 billion or 5.6% of the GDP in 1996. |
The Case Agianst Israel's Enemies by Alan Dershowitz 
Coming from England and particularly from the BBC, MUST BE SEEN VIDEO! ANOTHER MUST SEE VIDEO |