Israel’s economic outlook is extraordinary.

Hatred of Israel is always antisemitism masquerading as anti-Zionism or some defective "factual" conclusion. Yes, Israel receives $3.8 billion in US military aid. Well over 90 percent must be spent in the US to buy American-made gear. So Israel does benefit, but so do those amazing workers at Lockheed, Boeing, and other defense contractors. Palmer Luckey was recently in Israel as he sees a potentially important market for his advanced new weapons systems. The US gets lots of Israeli data as well as military tech. The haters might want to thank Israel for recently teaching American fighters how it reduced battle casualties from 15 percent to 7.1 percent.

But there is much more. Every important tech company has an outpost in Israel. NVIDIA is building a huge new campus. Meta, Apple, Microsoft and others all have Israeli researchers working in order to improve products and increase their value to stockholders. When an Israeli breakthrough makes these companies more valuable, you and your stock portfolio might just benefit from this little country.

It was recently reported that Israel expects future GDP growth of 7.5 percent next year after 5.6 percent in 2026. Israel is the only OECD country with a birth rate higher than replacement; it actually has the highest number of any of the advanced industrial countries. Israelis have a strong affiliation with religious practice and kosher food consumption. In many ways, Israel of today is like America in the 1950s and 1960s: religiously traditional, producing babies, successful in business, and militarily a powerhouse. Israel has passed the U.K. in per capita GDP at $69,800 — placing it 20th in the world for this category. As in the US, Bibi Netanyahu — like Donald Trump — has his challenges in showing his electorate that the economy is actually doing quite well.

But should Israel be doing so well? Hamas and its parent Iran thought that the October 7 butchery would be the end of........

© Townhall