After nearly three years of war, Israel remains in a state of ongoing emergency rather than returning to routine. Even during periods when the intensity of fighting eases, security uncertainty, evacuation, repeated rounds of reserve-duty call-ups, and the absence of a political horizon continue to shape civilian life and budgetary priorities. Alongside this, a civil struggle over the boundaries of democracy is underway. Within this reality, the socioeconomic question is pushed to the margins — precisely at a time when the need for strong public services and broad economic security has become more urgent.

The October war of 2023 led to a sharp increase in the need for mental health services on the part of the general population and especially for specific groups within it, among them persons injured by the Hammas attack or dislocated as a result of that attack and the subsequent war, families whose homes were damaged from rocket fire and soldiers suffering from post-trauma. The widespread distress occurred at a time when Israel’s public mental health services had been suffering for years from a chronic shortage of personnel, unfilled positions and, as a result, the general inaccessability of public mental health services.

While the fighting continues with no clear endgame, it dictates Israel’s political and social agenda. It is said that the war is a great leveler; however, the production of weaponry is not: a good portion of the millionaires and billionaires that made their fortunes in Israel in the course of the last two or three decades did so by producing arms based on hi-tech.

The human suffering caused by the present war is unprecedented in Israel’s war history. Against this background, the 2025 budget proposal promises Israelis numerous “dark years” — years without a social agenda.

Three different approaches to the cost of living in Israel point to a number of directions to be taken. Yet, there is no sign of any governmental body taking any action that might contribute to one or more of the solutions proposed.

Mayors and Displaced Residents of Localities in the North of Israel Discuss Strategies to be Undertaken “the day after” the October 2023 War Ends.

Position paper [shortened version for English readers] on the Effect of the October 2023 War on the Poor Residing in Israel’s Geographic Periphery, presented to the Special Knesset Committee for the Development of the Negev and the Galilee.

A short time ago the OECD published a comparative report describing education in OECD countries in 2021. Looking at the various countries’ government per capita investments in education reveals that at all educational levels, Israel invests less than the average among OECD countries. The largest gaps are to be found in early education (ages 0-3) and non-academic post-secondary education.

The publication deals with a number of issues affecting Israel’s social welfare system, the type of ideology and praxis guiding the social welfare services, and the need for a new vision for the social welfare system in Israel.

Israel’s chances of reaching the higher echelons of OECD social and economic scales will grow dimmer and dimmer year by year, as the hostilities continue and the military budget maintains its first-priority status.