Despite its many economic successes, Israel is plagued by an unusual high cost of living relative to wages, making life difficult, especially for young people and recent immigrants. Simona Weinglass writes:

[The economists] Gilad Brand and Eitan Regev surmised that these [market] problems are caused by government regulation that allows industry after industry . . . to be very concentrated [in the hands of a few businesses].

“An Israeli importer has an agreement with a global producer and the global producer works only with him,” explained Brand. “He is not willing to sell his products to other importers. . . . In other countries, . . . other entrepreneurs [would] come along and buy products in a secondary market, but in Israel the government ministries don’t make this possible.” . . .

“Many people think the problem of the Israeli market is that it’s too capitalistic,” said Regev. “Actually, it’s the exact opposite. It’s not competitive enough. It’s controlled by oligopolies and monopolies that reduce productivity and raise prices. Many Israelis blame the wrong address and think the problem is the improper distribution of public funds, when actually the real robbery is in the private sector.”

Yesterday, the Iranian foreign minister flew to Geneva to meet with European diplomats. President Trump, meanwhile, indicated that cease-fire negotiations might soon begin with Iran, which would presumably involve Tehran agreeing to make concessions regarding its nuclear program, while Washington pressures Israel to halt its military activities. According to Israeli media, Iran already began putting out feelers to the U.S. earlier this week. Aviram Bellaishe considers the purpose of these overtures:

The regime’s request to return to negotiations stems from the principle of deception and delay that has guided it for decades. Iran wants to extricate itself from a situation of total destruction of its nuclear facilities. It understands that to save the nuclear program, it must stop at a point that would allow it to return to it in the shortest possible time. So long as the negotiation process leads to halting strikes on its military capabilities and preventing the destruction of the nuclear program, and enables the transfer of enriched uranium to a safe location, it can simultaneously create the two tracks in which it specializes—a false facade of negotiations alongside a hidden nuclear race.