How Official Statistics Distort the Situation of Israel’s Poor and Keep Alive Failed Government Programs

Feb. 19 2021

In January, Israel’s National Insurance Institute (NII) released its yearly report on the economic situation of the citizenry, which paints a shocking picture, suggesting that one fourth of Israeli children live in poverty. Another government report puts the number at one in three. But, Amiad Cohen argues, these indices represent “a statistical fiction, radically different from the reality.” Worse still, the most recent NII statistics were deliberately reworked when the initial set appeared to downplay the effects of the pandemic:

In other words, the poverty indices misrepresent the number of people in serious financial need, often increasing [it] dramatically. These reports measure only a certain type of income and its distribution across society. They do not measure material deprivation and therefore do not provide any measure that would allow for the formulation of a policy to eradicate poverty.

The poverty index also completely ignores property ownership. Imagine that with hard work and good luck you [took the company you own public] and have a huge fortune of $10 million in your bank account. Thanks to this great fortune you have allowed yourself to go on a one-year vacation. During this year, you do not have a regular income. Well, according to the poverty index . . . you are considered “poor.”

Because the official poverty indices are flawed, government welfare policy based on these statistics does not and cannot provide a proper solution to real poverty. In the name of a “War on Poverty,” the government of Israel invests huge sums, much of which are wasted. [These expenditures make] only marginal contributions to those who are truly poor and suffering from severe material deprivation.

[These] problematic measurement methods are an excellent tool for preserving the power of the NII and for preserving the power of politicians. The way in which poverty rates are measured in Israel allows authorities to “play” with the data and move (through welfare distributions) families from below the poverty line above it, without contributing to their social mobility and without improving their real earning capacity. Unlike other in-kind income, the benefits are included in the calculated income and thus “results” can be easily achieved.

Read more at Jerusalem Post

More about: Coronavirus, Israeli economy, Israeli politics, Poverty

Egypt Is Trapped by the Gaza Dilemma It Helped to Create

Feb. 14 2025

Recent satellite imagery has shown a buildup of Egyptian tanks near the Israeli border, in violation of Egypt-Israel agreements going back to the 1970s. It’s possible Cairo wants to prevent Palestinians from entering the Sinai from Gaza, or perhaps it wants to send a message to the U.S. that it will take all measures necessary to keep that from happening. But there is also a chance, however small, that it could be preparing for something more dangerous. David Wurmser examines President Abdel Fatah el-Sisi’s predicament:

Egypt’s abysmal behavior in allowing its common border with Gaza to be used for the dangerous smuggling of weapons, money, and materiel to Hamas built the problem that exploded on October 7. Hamas could arm only to the level that Egypt enabled it. Once exposed, rather than help Israel fix the problem it enabled, Egypt manufactured tensions with Israel to divert attention from its own culpability.

Now that the Trump administration is threatening to remove the population of Gaza, President Sisi is reaping the consequences of a problem he and his predecessors helped to sow. That, writes Wurmser, leaves him with a dilemma:

On one hand, Egypt fears for its regime’s survival if it accepts Trump’s plan. It would position Cairo as a participant in a second disaster, or nakba. It knows from its own history; King Farouk was overthrown in 1952 in part for his failure to prevent the first nakba in 1948. Any leader who fails to stop a second nakba, let alone participates in it, risks losing legitimacy and being seen as weak. The perception of buckling on the Palestine issue also resulted in the Egyptian president Anwar Sadat’s assassination in 1981. President Sisi risks being seen by his own population as too weak to stand up to Israel or the United States, as not upholding his manliness.

In a worst-case scenario, Wurmser argues, Sisi might decide that he’d rather fight a disastrous war with Israel and blow up his relationship with Washington than display that kind of weakness.

Read more at The Editors

More about: Egypt, Gaza War 2023