Latest news with #IsraelDemocracyInstitute
Zawya
4 days ago
- Business
- Zawya
Israeli credit rating unlikely to get upgrade during Gaza war, S&P official says
JERUSALEM: Israel's credit rating is unlikely to be upgraded until the war in Gaza ends, since the conflict weighs on the Israeli economy and its fiscal position, S&P Global Ratings Director Maxim Rybnikov said on Tuesday. Any widening of the conflict to Iran would prompt a ratings downgrade, but that is not S&P's baseline scenario, Rybnikov said. S&P earlier this month affirmed Israel's long- and short-term foreign and local currency sovereign credit ratings at "A/A-1" and maintained a "negative" outlook. "For the outlook side, it's all about security risks and how this is going to unfold," Rybnikov told the Israel Democracy Institute's annual economic conference. "The key downside triggers are, first of all, military conflicts hampering some of Israel's characteristics, such as economic growth, fiscal position and balance of payments more than we currently anticipate." Even in the medium term, higher defence spending is expected to put pressure on Israel's fiscal position, with projections of a budget deficit of 5% in 2027 and 4.2% in 2028, Rybnikov said. He said the war that began in October 2023 had already lasted longer than initially anticipated. "We don't know ... the way forward and how the war is going to end, and for us, it certainly presents risks, especially in a scenario where there's a more significant escalation," he said. Yet, Israel's outlook could move back to "stable" in the event of a reduced likelihood of military escalation and an easing in broader security risks. "We still expect some stabilisation to happen over the medium term. What forms and how quickly it will take is still uncertain," Rybnikov said. Globally, he said there has been a "seismic shift" in U.S. trade policies and S&P assumes 25% tariffs on items such as water, steel, semiconductors and aluminum in addition to a 10% across the board tariff. But he does not expect a U.S. recession from a slowdown in growth in the U.S. and China.
Reuters
4 days ago
- Business
- Reuters
Israeli credit rating unlikely to get upgrade during Gaza war, S&P official says
JERUSALEM, May 27 (Reuters) - Israel's credit rating is unlikely to be upgraded until the war in Gaza ends, since the conflict weighs on the Israeli economy and its fiscal position, S&P Global Ratings Director Maxim Rybnikov said on Tuesday. Any widening of the conflict to Iran would prompt a ratings downgrade, but that is not S&P's baseline scenario, Rybnikov said. S&P earlier this month affirmed Israel's long- and short-term foreign and local currency sovereign credit ratings at "A/A-1" and maintained a "negative" outlook. "For the outlook side, it's all about security risks and how this is going to unfold," Rybnikov told the Israel Democracy Institute's annual economic conference. "The key downside triggers are, first of all, military conflicts hampering some of Israel's characteristics, such as economic growth, fiscal position and balance of payments more than we currently anticipate." Even in the medium term, higher defence spending is expected to put pressure on Israel's fiscal position, with projections of a budget deficit of 5% in 2027 and 4.2% in 2028, Rybnikov said. He said the war that began in October 2023 had already lasted longer than initially anticipated. "We don't know ... the way forward and how the war is going to end, and for us, it certainly presents risks, especially in a scenario where there's a more significant escalation," he said. Yet, Israel's outlook could move back to "stable" in the event of a reduced likelihood of military escalation and an easing in broader security risks. "We still expect some stabilisation to happen over the medium term. What forms and how quickly it will take is still uncertain," Rybnikov said. Globally, he said there has been a "seismic shift" in U.S. trade policies and S&P assumes 25% tariffs on items such as water, steel, semiconductors and aluminum in addition to a 10% across the board tariff. But he does not expect a U.S. recession from a slowdown in growth in the U.S. and China. "The numbers ... are very uncertain and there (are) significant downside risks," Rybnikov said.
Hindustan Times
22-05-2025
- Politics
- Hindustan Times
An Exhausted Israeli Public Turns Against War in Gaza
TEL AVIV—In the days following the Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023, attack, Israelis were unified in the belief that the country had to fight back. More than 19 months later, many are saying it is time to stop. Support for the war was widespread in the days after the attack, but Israelis quickly split over which of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's war aims should be given priority: freeing the 251 hostages taken that day or defeating Hamas. In January 2024, the Israeli public was nearly equally divided on the question, polls conducted by the Jerusalem-based Israel Democracy Institute found. Not so today. Polls now show that around 70% of Israelis support an end to the war in exchange for the release of the remaining hostages. For months after the attack, weekly protests in Tel Aviv and around the country demanded Netanyahu bring them home, but most protesters hardly ever carried signs calling for an end to the fighting. Today, posters all over Tel Aviv explicitly call for an end to the war. Repeated tours of duty for Israeli reservists have exhausted troops and their families, and commanders say it is getting harder to recruit forces for new rounds of fighting. Thousands of reservists and retired veterans have signed public letters in recent months calling for the war to stop in exchange for the hostages. The shift is coming as Israel is under increasing pressure from allies, including the U.S., to end the fighting. This week, the U.K., France and Canada threatened consequences if Netanyahu pursued a new ground offensive in Gaza. A White House spokeswoman said President Trump wants the fighting to stop. One sign that Israelis are increasingly uncomfortable with the war effort is a surge in support for Yair Golan, the leader of what remains of the once-powerful Israeli left. His Democrats party would be the third or fourth largest in Israel if elections were held today, some recent polls have shown. 'A sane country doesn't wage war against civilians, doesn't kill babies as a pastime, and doesn't engage in mass population displacement,' Golan said on Israeli radio on Tuesday. Such sentiments would have been unthinkable for a Jewish Israeli politician to utter at the start of the war. The change in public opinion comes amid growing distrust of Netanyahu's management of the war. There are still hostages in Gaza, Hamas hasn't been defeated and there is no plan for what comes next. Polls consistently show that Netanyahu and his right-wing coalition would lose power if elections were held today. Many of his critics allege that he is prolonging the war to appease his far-right partners on which his coalition relies. He denies the allegations. On Wednesday, Netanyahu said at a news conference that the war in Gaza has taken so long because of battlefield conditions. 'No other army in the world has met an urban environment like this with tens of thousands of terrorists above ground, 50 meters below ground, with a population that supports them,' he said. Hen Mazzig, a popular pro-Israeli online advocate with over 700,000 followers across platforms who has defended the country's military campaign, called for an end to the war on the social-media platform X this week, saying Trump is right to pressure Israel to stop the fighting in exchange for the release of hostages. 'I think in the first few months we understood the need for this war or the justification,' said Mazzig, who lives in Tel Aviv. But in the past year, he said, it has 'just been very challenging to defend Israel and to defend the actions of the government.' Rotem Sivan-Hoffmann, a radiologist and mother of three, founded a movement called 'Ima Era,' consisting of mothers of combat soldiers calling on the government to manage the war responsibly. Her eldest son is stationed at the border with Gaza and waiting for orders to enter the enclave. 'They are sending my son to die for Netanyahu's political survival and taking over Gaza,' she said. More people are joining the movement's WhatsApp groups and events, she noted. One of the key drivers of war-weariness is the burden on reservists. Israel relies on a small pool of reservists for its fighting and they are exhausted after serving for hundreds of days in Gaza, Lebanon, Syria and the occupied West Bank. Dalit Kislev Spektor, another member of the Ima Era group, is intimately familiar with the toll on reservists. Since the start of the war, her husband and two sons have all been serving in the military. Both of her sons are currently in Gaza. 'Throughout the war, the feeling that we lost our way got stronger and stronger,' she said. 'At a certain point the feeling was that the war was becoming a political war with unclear goals and this feeling reached its peak in the recent period,' she said. She added that she isn't opposed to going back to fighting Hamas once the hostages are free. While international opposition to the war in Gaza appears driven by the high Palestinian death toll—more than 53,000 have been killed, according to Palestinian health authorities, though their figures don't say how many are combatants—this hasn't been the major driving force in Israel. For a long time, the country was consumed by its own trauma from the Oct. 7 attack and television channels didn't air gruesome images of Palestinians killed in the fighting. Still, humanitarian-based opposition to the war is growing among the center-left in Israel, even though it isn't mainstream, said Tamar Hermann, a pollster and senior fellow at the Israel Democracy Institute. 'There is an awakening. I wouldn't say large but it can be felt—for the war to stop for humanitarian reasons,' Hermann said. On Sunday, hundreds of people turned up for a protest at the Gaza border calling to end the war, said Alon-Lee Green, founder of Standing Together, a left-wing Israeli-Arab coexistence group that has long called to end the war. While he acknowledges that he is still the minority, he sees a shift in the way Israelis are viewing the war conduct in Gaza. Previously, when he and other activists held photos of Palestinian children killed by Israel at demonstrations, people would try to take them down or even attack them. 'Now whenever we do that, people are looking at their eyes,' he said. 'They are looking at their faces. Sometimes they give us a thumbs-up, and say, 'Well done, you're right.' ' Write to Anat Peled at Get 360° coverage—from daily headlines to 100 year archives.
Wall Street Journal
22-05-2025
- Politics
- Wall Street Journal
An Exhausted Israeli Public Turns Against War in Gaza
TEL AVIV—In the days following the Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023, attack, Israelis were unified in the belief that the country had to fight back. More than 19 months later, many are saying it is time to stop. Support for the war was widespread in the days after the attack, but Israelis quickly split over which of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's war aims should be given priority: freeing the 251 hostages taken that day or defeating Hamas. In January 2024, the Israeli public was nearly equally divided on the question, polls conducted by the Jerusalem-based Israel Democracy Institute found.
New York Post
15-05-2025
- Politics
- New York Post
Arab Israelis stand with their country — and reject the rage of Hamas
The college students erupting in anti-Israel protests on campuses across the United States, and the marchers at Thursday's 'All Out for Gaza' demonstration in New York City, repeatedly echo the talking points issued by the terrorists of Hamas. But inside Israel, a very different story is unfolding: Millions of Arab citizens are rejecting Hamas and standing with the Jewish state. The Hamas-led terror attack on Oct. 7, 2023 wasn't just a bloodbath — it was a defining moment for Israel. Over 1,200 people were murdered. Children shot in their beds. Families torched in their homes. Civilians dragged screaming into Gaza. It was the deadliest attack on Jews since the Holocaust, and a shock to every decent person on the planet. As Israel reeled and the IDF prepared for war, another fear surfaced: Would the country's fragile Jewish-Arab internal fabric come undone? It didn't. In fact, something extraordinary happened — something Hamas didn't expect. Arab Israelis — Israel's 2-million-strong Arab minority — didn't riot. They didn't wave Hamas flags. They didn't cheer. They stood with Israel. Arab citizens of Israel don't all agree with the government. Many have grievances concerning inequality, discrimination and underinvestment. But when terrorists stormed Israeli homes and massacred civilians, Arab Israelis didn't flinch. They chose loyalty. Arab medics treated the wounded. Arab mayors calmed tensions. Volunteers from Arab towns donated blood, delivered aid and helped evacuate families. Arab enlistment in the IDF grew, because many saw clearly that groups like Hamas don't distinguish between Jew and Arab when attacking Israeli civilians. An Israel Democracy Institute poll in November 2023 showed that 70% of Arab citizens felt a sense of belonging to Israel — a dramatic rise from less than 50% just months earlier. More recently, a Moshe Dayan Center in December 2024 found that 71.8% of Arab Israelis supported the inclusion of an Arab party in the next governing coalition. While Hamas spreads chaos, Arab Israelis are choosing civic responsibility and coexistence. What many Western critics miss is this: Israel isn't just fighting Hamas with missiles — it's defeating them with reality. Israel is a democracy. Imperfect, yes — but one in which Arab citizens vote, serve in Parliament, work in hospitals, sit on the bench and lead classrooms. They protest. They debate. They're part of the national fabric. No country in the region offers Arab citizens those rights — not Egypt, not Lebanon, not Syria, and certainly not Hamas-run Gaza. Get opinions and commentary from our columnists Subscribe to our daily Post Opinion newsletter! Thanks for signing up! Enter your email address Please provide a valid email address. By clicking above you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Never miss a story. Check out more newsletters In Gaza, Hamas uses children as shields and jails dissenters; In Israel, a $202 million initiative launched in December is investing in Hebrew-language instruction in Arab schools, helping to bridge cultural and economic gaps. That's the Israel Hamas doesn't want the world to see. Since Oct. 7, Arabs and Jews in Israel have marched together under one banner, rejecting terror and believing in a shared future. One grassroots movement, Standing Together, brings them side by side — not in some PR campaign, but in a real alliance demanding justice and peace. In Israel, unlike Gaza or Lebanon, it's legal to organize that way — and the effort is gaining ground. Arab leadership has also shown real courage. Mansour Abbas, head of the Ra'am party, called Hamas's massacre 'barbaric.' No excuses. No hedging. Abbas made history in 2021 by joining an Israeli governing coalition — the first Arab party to do so — proving Arab leadership in Israel doesn't have to be about rage or rejection, but can be constructive, pragmatic, and patriotic. And that's exactly what Hamas fears: Arabs who believe in Israel's future. There's another, quieter symbol of unity: Bnei Sakhnin, an Arab-majority soccer team in Israel's top league. Arab and Jewish players compete together, cheered on by fans from all backgrounds. The team plays under the Israeli flag. It's not just a sports story — it's coexistence in motion. Oct. 7 was horror. But what's followed matters, too. Israel's Arab citizens didn't play into Hamas' hands. They didn't retreat into silence or sectarianism. They stood with their fellow Israelis. They rejected hate. They embraced a shared fate. They proved that Israel — despite its flaws — is still a place where Jews and Arabs can build a future together. Israel isn't falling apart. It's holding firm. In emergency rooms and classrooms, in city halls and at protests, ordinary people are refusing to be divided. Hamas may celebrate death. But Israel, even in grief, is creating something radical for the Middle East: a shared life. Haisam Hassanein is an adjunct fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.
