you may not have noticed, but numbers are sometimes more meaningful than words in your daily life. some numbers like 2,974 or 91,00 or 47,245, remind afghans of some bitter realities. watch this documentary to find out

what these numbers mean, of can this come from my uh? in in

just when israel's economic crisis is ritten off that it can't get any worse, it does. the israely regime has conducted a large-scale onslaught in the west bank, erasing any hopes for businesses to survive. this is why... really continue to leave the occupied palestine, meanwile the war cost keeps increasing due to israel's multiple war scenarios. hi, i'm kaviy, welcome to economic divide. some of the highlights of today's programs: israel warfronts, iran is one of them, hisbollah is another, and we're also looking at the gaza strip and the west bank to name few. then the crisis in the west bank. it is said to be a gaza style onslot that the regime wants to execute there.

businesses are going to suffer as a result of that and will continue to lose money, and the lack of workers also does not help any of this situation, then you're looking at israelies who are leaving the occupied lands, migration has increased, the most who do leave do not intend to return, and many are saying that israelis are just fed up with politics. the israeli economy is showing signs of faster downward spiral that was not imagined before. the specter of the genocidal war against palestinians reaching the occupied west bank has now become a reality. israeli regim forces have conducted the biggest raid and onslot on the occupied west bank, the largest in 22 years. this has severely impacted israely businesses even further.

were already suffering from economic crisis of unprecedented magnitude, over 40,00 businesses have been closed since the operational flood from october 7th, 2023. meanwhile the resistance groups in the occupied west bank are fighting back against the iof, which could signal a protracted conflict there, not that one was not occurring there already. the institute for national security studies in israel has revealed that israel now stands at a cross roads regarding the ongoing onslot on gaza and confrontations with the axes of resistance. detail. that every decision about the future will undoubtedly have significant economic consequences, especially considering that the projected budget deficit for 2024 is expected to exceed the forecast underlying the current state budget significantly. the paper explores the economic impacts with three scenarios: continuing the war in gaza,

escalating tensions on the northern front, we're securing an agreement that includes captive release deal. time for some social media posts: first up, israel's economy is dying, construction, tourism, tech, companies planning businesses with israel have backed out of billion dollar deals, countries like turkey have stopped exporting goods like lumber for construction, it's only going to get worse for them. then israel's power grid, which is largely switched to natural gas still depends on coal to supply demand. the biggest supplier of coal to israel is colombia, which announced that it would suspend coal shipments to israel after. to colombia, the next two biggest suppliers are south africa and russia, without continuous and reliable electricity, israel will no longer be able to pretend to be developed economy, then israel's economy is collapsing due to their own actions, tourism stopped, investments collapse and the workers

employees are fighting in the iof, we call the iof. germany has stopped sending money to israel because of the bds movement, and finally, economic collapse up to 60,00 israeli businesses to... close in 2024, the israel-based information company predicts that up to 60 thousand businesses will be forced to close down in 2024, 46,00 businesses have already closed since october the 7th. israel's economy is buckling after almost a year of genocide of slaughter in gaza with hamas still not defeated, added pressure from hezballah's strikes, making northern israel a ghost town, iran's looming retaliation for the assassination of ismahana and yemen's attacks on israeli linked shipping in the red sea. has been a recipe for disaster for the israeli economy. all right, those were the posts that we picked. let me introduce our guests. first up, we have costus, former deputy minister of national defense and mp of greece, he's also deputy general secretary of international association of friends of crimea. all right,

custas, welcome to economic divide, taking a look at uh the gaza war at this point uh, it's really the on stot has impacted israel's economy to the point of almost. return based on what some people have said, and taking a look at what what we are looking at at this point, $60 billion dollars in spending, and then you have other war fronts like with hisbullah um and others, what kind of economic future do you for see for israel? uh, thank you for your question, i think your question is very, very relevant to today's israeli social and economic crisis, because we must take into account that israeli economy is a war economy, it is a country that has been waging wars constantly, not classical wars in the classic sense of course, but in my opinion of course state terrorism. in any case, the forecasts for

israeli economy are very, very dim, not only to israeli economists and the society within israel, but also to man many international and economic analysts around the world, the israely economy is expected to shrink even further this year, perhaps more than two or three percent since the starting of the invasion in gaza and the continuation of the slaughter and the genocide in the west bank, which has been unfortunately the west bank is is becoming even more and more cloned in the way israel is waging war as in gaza today, so the workforce first of all in israel is missing from the labor markets, the statistic is showing that we have a 17% jump following the middle of october, and this is according

to the to center, which is an israeli economic think tank, i'm not posting my opinions, which may be even harsher, but i'm trying to point out that the grim. reality of the economy of israel has to do that 20% of the israeli workforce or perhaps 9000 israelis are now enlisted in the israeli army. tell us a little bit more about this workforce uh numbers uh because the unemployment figures actually don't match the business closures. what's the story behind that? um, there is much unemployment which has been created because of this workforce being translated to the army, which is almost a million. and then at the same time we have hundreds and hundreds of thousands of israeli's citizens fleeing israel, seeking visas around the world. the russian in in the russian continent, the eurasian continent, in

europe, and north america and so on, so the drastic cost of the war according to the economic um situation is that there is no more growth in the israely economy, there will be a shortage and there is also already a shortage of many many goods in in everyday israeli needs for israeli families and second, there will be a shortage of fuel and energy because of the red sea continuation of the defense of the palestinian people uh by the hoothis and yemen of course, so we must take into account that there is an enclosure the israeli economy from within and from the perimeter, which has to do with the workforce, the continuation of israeli citizens fleeing israel, plus the sortage of many many goods, including energy and fuel.

all right, so let's bring in our next guest, john lucas joins us, he's a foreign desk editor of the irish uh press and senior sub editor in the features departments of the irish times and co-curator of a highly successful exhibition of the irish orientalist writer patrick lafkadiahern. john lucas, welcome to economic divide. um, tell us what uh future this really economy is really facing here. spending is increasing and and with other war fronts, you have more uh, i guess funds that need to be um put into the war budget so to speak, and of course you're dealing with many business sectors that are just dying really, what kind of economic future do you for see for israel? the if if the if the war continues in gaza, if the genocide continues in gaza, there will be a massive im... impact on the israeli economy, even if they don't go into war with

iran or hisb, currently one of the one israeli economist yacob shenin in the associated press has estimated the cost at about 120 billion or 20% of the gdp, which is very high number indeed. "when you take top of that, the amount of people that israel is losing to the economy, through people leaving the country in large numbers, through the expulsion of the palestinians who worked in the construction industry to people been taken on for military duty, so that has mean meant that up to 60 thousand businesses have already closed, and as i say, there are so many..." now leaving the country, which has its own impact. time now to take a look at

some of the important news that we picked in our infinis section. first up, it's a look at crypto in the us, well, it's said to be the capital, the crypto capital of the planet, actually, who said that? the former us president donald trump in a post on x. where he said, i'm laying out my plan to ensure that the us will be the crypto capital of the planet. he said, they want to choke you, they want to choke you out of business. now trump said in the video uh that he put on x without specifying who they are, he added that we're not going to let that happen. hopefully we'll get an idea about what he's talking about. next, israel's budget, the topic of our program, this should obviously be something of huge worry for the israely regime. uh, it has stalled its budget, actually substantive talks on the fiscal framework for the year

2025 have yet to begin, war costs are adding up, especially since new fronts have opened up, that should be a big worry, because how can economy function when there's no budget planned, your guess is as good as mine. now we take a look at uh some uh tech layoffs that have happened, and this is uh pretty big news because uh they're continuing, bigtech companies. like apple, like microsoft, have fired hundreds of employees for the month of august, and the tech industry is continuing to experience significant layoffs uh this year with major. companies like apple, microsoft and google reducing their framework. the layoffs are driven by cost cutting on the one hand and then you have the ai focused and you also have the post-pandemic market adjustments and uh to give you an idea as of august, more than 136,00 tech employees have lost their jobs in these layoffs. and finally, tariffs on china.

yes, that continues in this case in point, canada is following the us, it is imposed 100% tariff on. ev's electric vehicles imported from china to work with allies to ensure customers around the world are not unfairly penalized by non-market practices of countries such as china. that's what the prime minister of canada trude has said. canada will also impose a 25% tariff on imported steel and aluminum from china. well, those were the news pieces that we picked for our infinis section of the program. if you have any pieces that you want to share with us uh from wherever you are, do... send us your ideas, contact information is coming up. this week, unexpos day, we dive into the arrest of telegram ceo pavel duve in france, pivotal moment in the global battle over digital freedom as governments intensified

their push to break into users private data. we'll also uncover how the genecal war on gaza has sparked not only fierce battles on the ground, but also a silent war in newsrooms, where journalists who dared to speak up have been sensored or silenced, and a world increasingly divided, will explore the growing debate over social media censorship, where a stunning 71% of washington democrats now support restricting misinformation compared to just 41% of republicans. stay tuned for expose, the truth is just the revelation away. time out for the end up section of the program: the economy in israel has been impacted by the gaza genidal war for almost a year now, but the other war scenarios combined with the occupied west bank onslot now are dashing any hopes for any

improvement really. it's hard to see how israel is going to crawl out of this one and uh forget about reliance. on this uh guy over here, this is uh, the finance minister of israel uh, mr. smoke rich. israelis do not rely on him for anything. i mean take a look at this placard over here, for example, we all live in a sinking submarine, that's how israel is feel when it comes to their economics and their finances. well, some negative indicators is what we're going to look at over here. no surprise here, investors for example, they've all but abandoned investing in the occupied territories most definitely to get worse, because now you have the west bank onslot. happening, then you have the credit downgrades that have happened, and that puts israel really in a bind when it comes to loan prospects. one of the sectors that has been hit hard is the israely tourism sector. the numbers speak for themselves, uh, you take a look at how the number of tourists have dropped, well that's quite dramatic. then you take a look at the hotel occupency rate, which is one of the things that gets impacted

obviously due to the number of tourist dropping, and at this point minus 50% to 70% drop is what we're. looking at there uh we picked sector when it comes to lack of workers that we keep hearing about and uh we are looking at the israely health sector where they are dealing with shortages uh things like doctors in general and uh psychotherapists and immigration the sector is now uh plaging it along with a shortage of funds which is always a bummer when it comes to uh any sector to thrive uh the cost of living in the occupied territories is another thing we uh have taken a uh look at, and at this point we are looking at oecd countries, um, the departure, for example, of technicians with advanced technology outside the occupied lands is uh one sign of this, um, we're also looking at uh the fact that uh, when you have these types of uh figures to be higher uh in israel uh, like consumer goods for example, 50 to 70% more expensive

in israel versus the average price levels in oecd member countries, well that just shows how bad things are for israelis and of course that doesn't reflect well when it comes to the consumer confidence. um, let's move to the next uh graph and see what we have over there uh, this is the uh impact that the war has had and there's now number of fronts with the wars involved uh, obviously the deficit keeps going higher, public spending uh, as matter of fact in terms of the funds available keeps getting lower, at this point we're looking at uh the... gdp loss of 14 billion based on what we're seeing here, so obviously that's not a good sign, finally here are the numbers when it comes to israel's leaving the occupied lands at this point. are looking at uh what percentage moving abroad? 28%. uh, that's almost a third, number that may rise dramatically because of the situation in the west bank,

um, which is um, many are hoping that it's not going to turn out to be as bad as the gaza strip or even close to it, and of course you see the rest, this percentage over here is uh going to probably decrease and move to the ones that are going to move abroad. all right, let's bring back our guests uh to get some idea uh behind what's happening here, rejoining us is costus sihos, the former deputy minister of national defense and mp of greece, welcome back to the program uh, when we take a look at what is happening here, it's not great when it comes to the immigration that and the migration, i should say from israelis, what are your thoughts about that in terms of uh what uh impact that's going to have at this point, like labor markets also being impacted, you have different uh dynamics involved here, the labor market particular i like to ask you about with 16000 palestinian workers not working. well, thank you for your question, once again, i think that the workforce uh

liability within israel has to do, as we said before because of the enforced movement of israeli workers towards the army, but also because of the incredible um stopping of migrants do... their own land and their own country of course of palestinian workers which has it very very hard israel. israel is trying to create a a new workforce, new workforce, the substituting the palestinian workers, mostly as you said, in construction, agriculture, small businesses and so on. all right, let's uh f find out what um john lucas thinks, john lucas, i'm going to go along with the same lines of how we're looking a shortage of workers, palestinian workers, however, not being permitted to work, and the uh workers that are being replaced by some

from india for example, and sri lanka, um, i mean, are we looking at - perhaps a crisis point uh when it comes to uprising from palestinians and occupied dans since the not being lot to work, sure, there, there is a distinct possibility. of that and not only that, i mean there are serious problems in the west bank, it's not just gaza, there have been terrible attacks on palestinians by settlers in gaza leading to many many debts and terrible situation for the palestinian families living in that area, so that's already major problem, and in fact my suspicion is that they israelis would enjoy... if there were more unrest in the west bank so they could apply the same criteria that they're applying to gaza, which is kill anything that moves, so that's a

major problem. all right, cusas, let me go and ask you about this particular migration, it's very important to look at that, israel's, israel is leaving the occupied lands, how much of an impact does this have on israel's economy? well, first of all, israel is experiencing demographic shock because of its mergerous genocidal war that the leaders of israel are continuing. um, the figures of evacuation and immigration from israel, israeli citizens of russian background, israeli citizens of european background, israeli citizens of north american or... south america background are fleeing the country for one simple reason, they do not agree with the aggression of israel and the genocidal war against the

palestinians and second and perhaps most important for their own families, because their children will be recruited into this genocidal war and they do not want their children to be victims of this genocide being conducted by the zionist regime. okay, i'm going to ask you the same. if i may when it comes to this john lucas, the way that the israelis are migrating out of israel, along with the shortage of workers is surely to impact the israeli economy, how much of an impact will that have do you think? well that exodus is causing a massive problem for israel, and it's not just a problem of losing workers in key industries like high tech. and others, it's causing an effect in terms of the political situation in in israel, the

battle for the soul of israel is taking place between an extreme hard right and what was formally liberal left, but it's gone to the right itself, but if if the extreme hard right wins that war, then it will continue to lose highly educated workers from the more liberal, high tech teaching and finance industries, so that's that's one of these unforeseen consequences that... happen, but none of none of the outcomes - from this for israel are good in any sense. based on the current situation, the israely economy is expected to record only 1% gdp growth in 2024. israel is perceived as

economically unstable, it is reduce the appeal of his risk assets for 2025, low growth is expected at around 1% with ongoing high budget deficits to fund security, potentially raising the debt to gdp ratio to 75% and negatively impacting israel's credit rating, a regular year we are growing at the rate of 3.7%, which mean that if you want it in dollar terms, are going to lose this year in gdp, 14 billion dollar, but it's only in gdp, we are losing much more, the scenario of escalation and significant infrastructure damage, this really economy could contract by up to 10% of gdp in 2024, the nearly years

long. on gaza has severely harmed the israely economy and has resulted in higher deficits, bad credit ratings and damaged tourism sector and continued public spending. the financial costs of rebuilding, paying casualties and improving defensive systems have been significant. economists have predicted a $14 billion gdp loss this year, citing that we are losing much more. there even some like this general who have said that if israel continues this onslot might reach point of no return. if we be stubling and continue the war until i don't know what then i i think we will not recover.

this is really on slot in the occupied west bank and surpass. sixth day, making israelies unsure of their economic prospects, since it is no longer the gaza strip that is experiencing instability and violence. well, mass protest against prime minister netanyahu are also threatening to break the very fabric of israel's society, with mass capital flight to the israely economy remains in a coma. that does for this edition of economic devide. thank you so much for being with us and for watching this episode. if you have any questions or comments or critiques, do send them to us, contact information is there. from me cover attack. and the tire team at economic divide is goodbye until the next program.

first of the headlines, israel pushes ahead with his genocide against palestinians in the gaza strip as the death doll from 11 months of attack. is nearing 41, israely forces launch fresh raise into the west bank, firing live rounds and abducting several people across occupied palestinian territory. also coming ups here is air defenses intercept a number of israely missiles as the regime's new air strikes on hama province kill 14 and inter nearly 20 others.