Blog : Philosémitisme

La Belgique et la Norvège se singularisent par leur frénésie boycotteuse envers Israël. Les deux pays sont cités (négativement) en exemple dans une interview par la très sérieuse revue économique israélienne Globes. Visiblement ça n'inquiète pas beaucoup et l'économie israélienne est en pleine forme.  Ce qui est étonnant c'est qu'en mars 2010, la demande d'obligations israéliennes en Europe a atteint 13 milliards d'euros et il a fallu la plafonner l'investissement à 1.5 milliard. La demande pour des obligations israéliennes est bien plus importante que l'offre.

"Demand for Israeli bonds is much higher than supply": Finance Ministry representative in New York Sigi Sayag and deputy accountant general Eran Heimar are optimistic about Israel's international economic standing.

"Globes": Israel's geopolitical condition has worsened as a result of the changes in the Middle East. How does this affect Israel's ability to raise capital'
"There are geopolitical effects, but investors can distinguish between them. Evidence is the recent upgrade of Israel's credit rating. Israel has good macroeconomic figures, and in a world of shaky financial systems, unpleasant neighbors are not as scary as they once were."

Is there a risk of a politically motivated investor boycott against Israel, for example by pro-Palestinian European countries such as Norway or Belgium?
"Today, the geopolitical situation does not affect the credit situation. What will happen tomorrow, we don't know. But if Norway doesn't want to invest in Israel, there will be other countries: China, Thailand, Singapore, Russia. There's enough money in the world that is seeking Israeli diversity for its investment portfolio. In our last offering in Europe, in March 2010, demand totaled ?13 billion, and we had to cap the investment at ?1.5 billion. There's a lot more demand for Israeli bonds than we can offer." [...]