Can Israel’s economy survive an all-out war with Hizbullah?

Israel’s economy should have been trundling towards recovery. After all, many of the 300,000 workers who left their jobs to fight have now returned to offices, factories and farms. Instead, a difficult situation is becoming more difficult still. GDP growth came to just 0.7%, on an annualised basis, between April and June, some 5.2 percentage points below economists’ expectations, according to Bloomberg, a news agency. On September 16th Bezalel Smotrich, Israel’s finance minister, had to ask legislators to approve an emergency deficit increase. It was the second time he had made such a request this year.