Friday, May 27, 2011

Our true worth

Yisrael Medad

A semi-academic study has been published which claims that the Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria are "worth" $18.8 billion.
We should know of the institution that published the study:

The Macro Center for Political Economics was established after eleven years of research in The Israeli Institute for Economic and Social Research (IIESR), and specializes in the economic and sociological analysis of current and evolving issues on Israel's public agenda.
They've published a Settlements Encyclopedia which is:

a unique database of the Israeli Settlements in the West Bank...The Encyclopedia contains the following data for each settlement:
- Demographic and economic data about the settlement; Inventory of construction by usage: municipal institutions, residential, industrial, commercial, and agriculture. The inventory is given both in number of units and in total sq. meters by usage; Infrastructure inventory: roads, gas stations, water and electric installations; Value (cost) estimates for each item (in current US Dollars); Aerial Photograph of the settlement...A total of 131 settlements are available.

Incidentally, the Prime Minister's Office [indicated] it said receives budgeting from "state-run agencies in Europe that have an interest in the Middle East." That, I assume, is a code alert for anti-YESHA left-wing progressive agenda.

And as for the details:

Yisrael Medad


The Macro Center's report, which covers West Bank settlements but not illegal outposts, claims to have evaluated all [no, only 131] of the Jewish homes located beyond the 1967 borders. The report found a significant increase in the settlements' monetary worth due to expansion. It claims that in 2004 settlements were worth $12,649,111,231, a sum that rose to $18,793,513,125 by May 2011.

As for the exact definition of "worth," a Hebrew-language article from last March seems to imply that the "worth" is the cost of the building and construction.

But there is so much more to be valued - agriculture (for example, our prize-winning vineyards and their wines; organic products), technology, industry, educational institutions, social welfare projects, security contribution, hi-tech, etc.

If the intention is to illustrate that removing us with compensation is impossible, or very, very expensive, that was a no-brainer.

We know we're of irreplacable worth.

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