‘Israelis will take corruption, but not inflation or terrorism,’ Segev said. ‘They want to know how much their shekel is worth, and that there’s no bomb under their car,’ Tom Segev, Haaretz.
Why I believe Trump’s tariffs on Israel have a better chance of loosening Israel’s 60-year grip on Palestine than anything else proposed so far—whether by the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement or Arab and Muslim countries. This isn’t to downplay the heroic efforts of students, civil society groups, academics, and social media influencers who’ve worked tirelessly to end this relentless assault on human dignity. Instead, it’s an analysis of how an unexpected external factor—like a 17% tariff on Israel—might surprisingly weaken the occupation’s staying power.
History, especially biblical history, is the glue that binds the Israeli and Jewish people together. Without this mythical history, there’d be no “Land of Israel.” And without the Land of Israel, Jews would have had no claim to Palestine. It’s through this biblical narrative—what I call the “Wakanda version” of the Bible—that European Jewry colonized Palestine, eventually establishing a nation of their own by displacing the indigenous Palestinian population. This ancient history has many layers: political, economic, and theological. After messianic zeal, economics has been the beating heart of the Jewish people’s trajectory, especially over the last 2,000 years. In fact, history shows that economics has often shaped Jewish life more than religion or politics.
In times of war and political upheaval—unlike other communities—Jews have frequently been spared. Ancient texts and modern records (except for the grim exception of 1939–1945) are full of inspiring tales of how righteous individuals among other nations, or even divine intervention, protected Jewish people from destruction. But economic crises? That’s a different story. Economic instability has consistently brought pain—and sometimes ruin—to Jewish communities. During these periods, Jews didn’t just lose their unity by scattering across the globe; they were often scapegoated and punished for financial troubles. Jewish kingdoms crumbled when kings hiked taxes on goods. Tariffs didn’t exist back then, but taxes did—and tariffs are just a modern form of taxation. Biblical historians largely agree that the split between the southern and northern kingdoms of Israel stemmed from tax hikes on the Jewish people. Even earlier, during the period of the Judges, Jews repeatedly revolted and toppled leaders when taxes spiked.
The Mishnah—Jewish religious commentary—includes stories claiming that Nero, the infamous Roman emperor, was assassinated after raising taxes on Jewish businessmen in Rome. Throughout history, Jews have faced attacks when blamed for the financial woes of non-Jews. This pattern repeats across time: in Roman Christendom during the Medieval and Middle Ages, in Renaissance Europe, and even as recently as the 2008 financial crisis, when much of the world pointed fingers at Jews for their troubles. This tangled history still weighs heavily on Jewish people in Israel today and explains why so many make Aliyah—the migration to Israel—in the first place. It’s not about physical safety; Israel is far more dangerous than the Western countries or Russia, where most immigrants come from. It’s not purely religious either—synagogues exist everywhere now. The real draw is financial and economic security.
SHOW ME THE MONEY
Israel offers its citizens remarkable financial perks: free education, healthcare, and low-interest startup loans. Israeli banks are often barred from charging high interest rates to Jewish borrowers, making it an attractive deal for Jews to leave the West for Israel. On top of that, Israel enjoys unparalleled free trade privileges with the European Union, the United States, Australia, Canada, and Russia. These countries prioritize investing in and importing Israeli goods and services. The EU even has dedicated departments with multimillion-dollar budgets solely to prop up Israeli products. In the U.S., Congress has passed numerous trade and investment bills favoring Israel above all other nations.
Most of these countries adopted these policies as part of trade deals brokered by the United States. For decades, the U.S. has used its global free trade leverage to nudge the world into cozying up to Israel. As a result, Israelis have reaped massive rewards. They’ve also become middlemen for countries under Western sanctions—like Russia—repackaging sanctioned goods and shipping them tariff-free to the West for a hefty commission. All this has made Israelis some of the wealthiest people per capita globally, even rivaling the oil-rich Gulf states.
Unlike those Gulf countries, Israel doesn’t sit on vast natural resources. Its true resource is the United States. But now, for the first time, the U.S. is slapping tariffs on Israeli goods. Suddenly, there’s little incentive for Jews in the West to move to Israel—or for those already there to stay. Foreign investment in Israel’s booming tech sector will dry up. If Trump keeps these tariffs in place for a year, we could see an exodus of biblical proportions out of Israel. The country’s status as a “startup nation” would collapse. Investors would flee, and reservists would abandon the fight—why stick around for a country with no financial payoff? Only the most extreme religious zealots would remain.
