The Long Road to Catastrophe: Colonial Neoliberalism and the Making of Israel

Israel's neoliberal transformation since 1977 created the conditions for Netanyahu's authoritarian rule and the catastrophe of the Gaza War. This is the untold story of how it happened.

Drawing on Hebrew-language sources - memoirs of finance ministers, central bankers, and economic architects - Guy Laron reveals how Israel became one of the most unequal societies in the developed world. He traces the destruction of the labor federation, the privatization of the welfare state, and the creation of a dependent settler and ultra-Orthodox coalition that keeps the Likud in power.

Laron shows how the Israeli Labor Party, rather than resisting neoliberalism, championed it - empowering technocrats over elected officials and abandoning the working class for the professional managerial class. The result was a society where cheap West Bank housing became the only compensation for workers squeezed by austerity, locking in electoral support for the occupation.

From Begin's 1977 revolution through the Oslo years to Netanyahu's authoritarian populism, this is the first comprehensive political economy history of modern Israel, explaining how neoliberalism created technocracy, then devoured it, and, finally, led to the carnage in Gaza. The result was an Israel weaker than ever.