Professor Manuel Trajtenberg is a leading Israeli economist and key economic advisor to Finance Minister Yair Lapid. In 2011 he led a committee appointed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to draw up proposals in response to Israel’s social protest movement. In this interview with BICOM Senior Research Fellow Alan Johnson, he discusses Israel’s budget deficit and income gaps, the problem of curbing defence spending, and the impact of new found gas resources on the Israeli economy. He also discusses a new Israeli scholarship scheme to increase Arab-Israeli enrollment in higher education, in his capacity as chair of the Budgeting and Planning Committee of Israel’s Council for Higher Education.

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