The Biden administration announced Tuesday it will implement visa bans on Israelis viewed as “extremist settlers” in the West Bank. The policy move follows President Biden’s warning last mont…

  • steventhedev@lemmy.world
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    11 months ago

    totally dependent on aid from the West.

    I think you’re wrong about this. Israel is a net-exporter economically and grows its own food. Although admittedly, the majority was being grown in the region around Gaza and there are reports that many crops went unharvested.

    • alvvayson@lemmy.world
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      11 months ago

      Do yourself a favour and look to whom they export.

      They can’t afford a boycott.

    • filister@lemmy.world
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      11 months ago

      And their agricultural sector is fully dependent on cheap Labor, mostly coming from Palestinians and Thai people. They stopped issuing work visas of Palestinians, so their building and agricultural sector is probably contracting and struggling at the moment.

      • steventhedev@lemmy.world
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        11 months ago

        I wouldn’t say fully dependent - there’s local labor who are willing to step up especially in the face of the economic downturn of a war. More importantly, foreign labor is legally entitled to the same minimum wage as Israelis - this was historically exploited through various loopholes such that many Thai workers are receiving around 80% of minimum wage. Even in the face of a pricing shock, local food markets should reach equilibrium quickly, and Israel has avoided food subsidies outside of a handful of regulated products (basic white bread, milk, eggs, hard cheese). I don’t foresee food security being an issue in Israel to the point they need to import food outside of stabilizing local prices or ensuring seasonal availability.

        Palestinians won’t be going to work inside Israel for a very long time. The US is trying to push that one through, but I think that’s one they’ll push back hard on - if you were Israeli, would you want to work with someone who supported what happened on October 7th?

    • JoBo@feddit.uk
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      11 months ago

      They cannot make all the military equipment they require to continue the occupation. It’s a country of ~8 million people. With the fourth or fifth largest military in the world.

      • steventhedev@lemmy.world
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        11 months ago

        Ranked 30th in the world by active military personnel. Ranked 13th in the world by reservists. Wikipedia

        Most of the military aid goes towards purchasing Iron Dome interceptors at the moment - it’s a uniquely bad idea to stop those from being delivered. The rest is containers full of random plastic crap like lunch trays - US foreign aid to Israel is actually a jobs program for states like Ohio in a way that minimizes the macroeconomic impact on the US.