The state of food security in Israel is better than in most countries, but the threats to food security arising from climate change, international conflicts and disruptions in global supply chains require better preparation for the future. Israel’s population growth and the slowdown in the growth rate of its agricultural production are leading the country to increasingly rely on food imports. Such imports expose Israel to even greater global risks, and require the formulation of a risk management strategy. This necessitates the establishment of a governmental authority to oversee the formulation of the strategy, break it down into feasible objectives and policy measures, and supervise their implementation.

The public discourse on teachers’ wages in Israel tends to focus on pay slips brandished in demonstrations. While these pay slips highlight what are truly low salaries, their rectification involves much more than simply raising wages significantly for all teachers. This policy brief highlights some of the primary issues underlying the teachers’ low wages. Resolution of these issues necessitates a public reset not only with regard to the compensation of teachers, but also with regard to how they are employed.

Israel’s political establishment has been leading the country straight towards the iceberg for decades. The economic fallout from the Covid-19 pandemic and the ongoing neglect of the healthcare system are just the tip of the iceberg. Decaying education and transportation infrastructures, for example, choke the labor productivity – GDP per hour worked, already among the lowest in the industrial world – that determines Israeli wages. In fact, productivity gaps between the leading developed countries and Israel have risen more than three-fold since the 1970s. When roughly half of the country’s children, who tend to belong to Israel’s fastest growing population segments, receive a third world education, then the nation’s ability to maintain a first world economy – which is a necessary condition for physically surviving in the planet’s most dangerous region – begins to seriously threaten Israel’s future existence.

Given on the Jerusalem street across from the prime minister’s residence at the invitation of protest organizers, the talk was made with a clear understanding that the presentation would be a professional and evidence-based analysis of the kind that Shoresh provides senior government ministers and opposition leaders alike. Its focus was on the internal changes that Israel has undergone, their magnitude, their impact, and on the need for significant changes in the country’s national priorities while the window of opportunity is still open.