Great fuss was made in Israel last week, when “The Economist” magazine cited the country as having one of the fastest growing economies throughout 2022.

Michael Humphries cited 6 reasons for this boom. New export markets, continuing immigration and even an uplift from continuing security issues were all part of the chain of events contributing to this Covid-Ukraine era of uplift.

Maybe I could have added the continuing internal political turmoil, which ensures that it is difficult for any government to overspend.

And then enters the new finance minister, Mr. Bezalel Smotrich. He is purportedly about to propose legislation that will remove numerous bureaucratic procedures holding up the progress of crucial infrastructure projects. Good news, hopefully?

Earlier this week, I commented on his other plans to “roll back tax hikes on single-use plasticware and sweetened drinks put in place by his predecessor”. The move is obviously designed to please his supporters, a populace who tends to buy such rubbish food, and in quantity.

The following day, I was listening to a couple of podcasts with a British professor of medicine, Tim Spector. Now an author of five books and hundreds of medical articles, his latest work is a best seller: Food for Life : The New Science of Eating Well

Spector basically debunks the whole soft drinks industry. Regular Sprite or ‘low calorie’ cola are all full of potential poisons. One of his favourite researchers on the subject ironically heralds from Israel: Prof Eran Elinav, an immunologist at the Weizmann Institute of Science, south of Tel Aviv.

Will Smotrich learn to read the details of his briefs before other policies threaten the lives of Israelis?

Meanwhile, he will no doubt press ahead with his battle against bureaucracy. Hopefully, this will enable vital projects to move ahead, such as the light railway in Tel Aviv, urgently required to alleviate the daily traffic jams. There again, his colleague in government, Miri Regev who is the Minister of Transport, continues to oppose the Metro plans in Tel Aviv.

Thus, the final result of Smotrich’s efforts to combat inefficiency may just end up as paper in the rubbish bin………………where it can join all those additional empty plastic bottles.