The Global Political Economy of Israel

By Shimshon Bichler and Jonathan Nitzan

Over the past century, Israel has been transformed from an agricultural colony, to a welfare-warfare state, to a globally integrated 'market economy' characterised by great income disparities. What lies behind this transformation? In order to understand capitalist development, we need to break the artificial separation between 'economics' and 'politics', and think of accumulation itself as 'capitalisation of power'. Applying this concept to Israel, they reveal the big picture. Diverse processes - such as regional conflicts and energy crises, ruling class formation and dominant ideology, militarism and dependency, inflation and recession, the politics of high-technology and the transnationalisation of ownership - are all woven into a single story. The result is a fascinating account of one of the world's most volatile regions.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0745316751
• ISBN13: 9780745316758
• Release Date: October 2002
• Publisher: Pluto Press (UK)
• Length: 424 Pages
• Weight: 1.40 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 6.0" x 9.2"

Customer Reviews

believe the raves on the dustcover.

This is one of the most informative books I have read in years. First, it is authored by professors of political economy who write with a minimum of academic jargon and make difficult concepts accessible to non-specialists. Second, by synthesizing data from diverse sources these experts clarify for the lay reader how finance and politics are manipulated by elites to seize and hold onto power and wealth. Third, it presents their original concepts of "breadth" investment and "depth" investment, two processes which explain alternating periods of "peace process" and war and which help the reader penetrate the fog and spin put out by elites and the media they control. Fourth, these populist professors make their points with a dry wit reminiscent of Veblen's skewering of the 'leisure class'. Finally, and with impressive specificity, they expose the tricks used by powerful Israelis to enrich themselves at the expense of Israeli taxpayers and to transform that once egalitarian society into a plutocracy. This book has been met by dead silence from the wealthy crooks it exposes. Like Kissinger ducking war-criminal accusations by Hitchens, these usually combative and litigious billionaires hope to quietly bury this brilliant book. I predict it will not be reviewed by elite-dependent media and academic journals - and my advice is to buy your copy now, before all remaining stock is bought up and quietly pulped.