War Will Downgrade Israel's Credit Rating
Moody’s is the world’s pre-eminent advisory on debt markets. Along with Standard & Poor and Fitch, it monitors global investment risk. And now, it’s just sounded the alarm bell for Israel, warning that the severity and probable longevity of the current Israel/Palestine conflict will make it more expensive for Netanyahu’s Government to borrow money. The country’s already been shown a yellow card by Moody’s for the overhaul of its judiciary system in July. In that particular instance, by blocking the Supreme Court’s right to challenge government’s decisions, Israel effectively became an autocracy.
But now, the ramifications of a poor credit rating may retard Israel’s ability to prop up its defence capabilities. Particularly on the tech side.
Moody’s has made the statement that the downgrade will have a negative impact on the economy as well as security.
Does Israel care? Perhaps, but not enough to start a conciliatory conversation around ceasefire or peace.
The announcement by Moody’s made me a dig a little, though. I wondered where Palestine’s credit rating is standing at the moment.
So I went onto tradingeconomics.com to found out.
I started scrolling from Australia (lucky them with their AAA rating) all the way down to Venezuela (they could only muster a C; ironic given that their major export begins with a C). Anyway, I scrolled down, then I scrolled back. Then down again. Nope. No Palestine on the list. As if they didn’t exist at all.
Aid is Just Gift Wrapped Debt
In the meantime, Israel received over US$3bn from the US in foreign aid last year – of which less than 1% went to something other than military. Just yesterday, Biden requested another $106bn from Congress for aid to Israel and Ukraine. This is a top-up to the $150bn the U.S. has ‘given’ to the Middle East state since 1948. According to Washington, Israel is, and alway has been, unable to support itself. SInce it was founded, it has been a country yet to reach any form of self-sufficiency.
We’re not a political site, we’re all about technology. We’ve already enquired how Hamas got the tech to punch through into Israel. Now we’re asking what the cost will be to Israel’s security-led economy, which in turn is driven by tech.
None of it makes any sense; the equation has nothing, absolutely nothing, on the right side of the equals sign.
To an observer (and that would have to mean an alien observer), it must look like neither modern day Palestine nor Israel are countries at all. They’re just sad experiments.
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