A light unto what? Who are you kidding: "Israel now worships the golden calf of the free market: privatization and sink-or-swim competition, what British Prime Minster Edward Heath once called the “ugly face of capitalism.” The country’s economy is under the influence of a handful of families who, like robber barons, rob public assets, utilities and national resources, all with the help of corrupt officials and ministers. To understand how the country’s wealth is concentrated in few hands, one has to read the Israeli business daily The Marker. The paper estimated the accumulated wealth of the 500 richest people in the country to be around 300 billion shekels (US $75 billion). By contrast, Israel’s GDP is 567 billion shekels (US$130 billion). Israel is now on the Top Ten list of nations with the widest socio-economic gap. Pensions have been reduced. Social security benefits have been cut. In 2005-7, Israel produced more millionaires per capita than any other country. But it also pushed more people back beneath the poverty line than any other western nation in the last decade." (thanks Mohamed)