Israel Prospering

 

S&P, a credit rating company confirms Israel's credit rating: AA minus. The main characteristics of the State of Israel's credit rating are a diversified and robust economy, strong external accounts, an optimal debt structure alongside increased geopolitical risks.

S&P expects the Israeli economy to grow at a rate of 5.5% in 2022, after in 2021 the actual growth was 8.2%, higher than the company's original forecast of 6.5%. The company points positively to the strong external accounts with a surplus in the balance of payments and high foreign exchange reserves, supported by a strong high-tech sector. Russia-Ukraine war has zero impact on the economy.

The Coalition: Ra'am, the Islamic Movement's Bedouin Party, is part of the governing coalition. Reacting to the police beating of Palestinian demonstrators on the Temple Hill, it retired it support for the government. To come back, they demanded a large bribe. Bennet would not agree, so they stopped negotiating with him and demanded to speak with Liberman, the corrupt but smart Monies Minister. They found a common language and in no time, the Bedouins are back in the government. The Torah forbids us to wage war repeatedly against the same enemy, so they will not learn to fight. Seems to me that we have been bribing the Bedouins for so long that they have learnt the mechanics of successful blackmailing and are better at it than we are. Abu Something their leader declared that good things are coming soon to the nomad encampments.

Shura will decide

 

Tomorrow will be the vote in the Knesset about the dissolution of the government. If the Ra'am Islamic party decides so, the Bennet government falls. Ra'am has convoked consultations (Shura in Arabic) and they will decide the fate of Israel. Presumably, millions will flow into the pockets of the Beduin leadership and Bennet will have a respite.  

Life expectancy

 

According to the US Social Security calculator, I have 11.6 years to live. According to John Hancock Insurance, I'll die at 97.  I'll look like this fellow Hungarian Jewish refugee. Not nice. 

Anyway, I have to work out a quinquennial plan. 

Discovering the Pokemon Universe

 

Arbel has a big Pokemon cards album and demonstrated to me what each critter does. Could you believe that this superannuated grandpa had never heard of the Pokemon universe?  Springtime for the always-learning saba J. 

A Fresh Face in the White House

The new American Press Secretary is a very nice Haitian lesbian.  
 

A New Calamity

 The environmental craziness has found another way of stopping development. From The Economist:

Nutrient neutrality came suddenly to Herefordshire, a pretty corner of western England, in 2019. “We had no warning. We just got a letter in the post,” says Merry Albright of Border Oak, a local house-builder. Like others, Ms Albright quickly discovered that she could no longer obtain permission to build homes across two-fifths of the county. She now travels across England, as far as Essex in the south-east, to seek work.

The rules that have paralyzed house-building in Herefordshire are designed to protect rivers and wetlands. Nutrient neutrality means that no development likely to draw people to an area, from a new home to a campsite, can be approved if it will result in more nitrates or phosphates entering a protected river. That is a severe limitation, since water-treatment plants do not remove all pollutants before discharging into rivers. In practice, the rules make building much harder.

Shanghai Refugee Museum.

 

A statue outside the Shanghai Jewish Museum.

A relative, Dr. Kovacs, was there. He came to Argentina with many Chinese artistic artifacts.