Submitted by yuval Brandstetter MD, Sep 3, 2007 01:45

There is a simple explanation for the anomaly of excellent innovative economy, and incredibly high cost of living. It is the dearth of land. More specifically the dearth of land into which Business may relocate, and therefor employees. 70 percent of the workforce in Israel is settled in the coastal region sixty miles long by 7 miles wide. The rest of the country is essentially abandoned to the encroaching Arab habitation where no sane business-person will invest. Which means land is exorbitantly priced, making both working and living extremely expensive. Nothing less than a tremendous value-added industry can survive, which, for the time being, high-tech is. It is as if all of the US lived and worked in Santa Cruze, or all of New York State was Manhattan.

The solution, obviously, is to open the land to Jewish habitation. Judea and Samaria, the back-bone of the country are virually void of population. Six thousand square kilometeres holding less than a million people versus one thousand square kilometers holding three million, which is what Tel aviv and environs are. Now that is a political issue fiercely debated in Israel, and the world. Avoiding the issue will not make it go away, and if Judea and Samaria become a Hamastan (as president Bush and Sec Rice seem intent on creating) the economic miracle will disintegrate so fast, 1929 will look like a picnic in Central park.

Yuval Brandstetter MD, Lehavim,

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