These studies have documented case after case of waste, fraud, and abuse at a cost to Israelis of billions of dollars. The authors of these studies, increasingly the top graduates of Israel's economics departments, rely heavily on the official publications of Israel's Central Bureau of Statistics and other authoritative sources. Against the body of this research, The New York Times and other establishment media trumpet a different theme, that of unparalleled free market reform and prosperity. One is tempted to dismiss journalistic accounts as superficial, written by correspondents who lack training in research, but especially in economics. But that would be the easy way out.
Research carries with it the commitment to persuade.
We in the public policy business must try to correct, as often as necessary, the gross simplifications and misrepresentations of Israel's economy that appear in The New York Times and other media outlets, however difficult or futile the efforts sometime appear to be. The New York Times is Americans' premier English language source about Israel. Still, Schmemann used the Bank of Israel's definition of high tech. This is not exactly the stuff of a high tech revolution. To repeat, older industries outgrew the newer, real high tech industries.