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Israeli Lawmakers Seek to Lower Capital Gains Tax to Draw Foreign Investment Despite Gaza War
Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich attends an inauguration event for Israel’s new light rail line for the Tel Aviv metropolitan area, in Petah Tikva, Israel, Aug. 17, 2023. Photo: REUTERS/Amir Cohen
Israel’s parliament, known as the Knesset, is considering a proposal to lower the country’s capital gains tax from 25 percent to 20 percent in a bid to draw foreign investment despite the ongoing war with the Hamas terror group in Gaza.
Likud Party MK Eliyahu Revivo proposed the change to the capital gains tax during a session of the Knesset’s Finance Committee this week, a move praised by major trade groups and leading economists seeking innovative ways to give the economy a push until the war ends.
Israel, nicknamed the “startup nation,” has been generally considered a strong foreign investment bet, with industries such as high-tech and real estate having grown significantly over the past few decades.
Since the start of this year, however, investment has been down. This trend began before Hamas’ Oct. 7 massacre across southern Israel, as investment from abroad took a hit due to uncertainty over the Israeli governing coalition’s judicial reform package, which brought hundreds of thousands of Israelis onto the streets to protest. One of the results of the deep domestic divide that ensued was pushing away some foreign investment.
With the war in Gaza, which began with the Hamas atrocities last month, investment has slowed due to uncertainty surrounding business. Indeed, Israel’s business sector has been hit hard, with many finding it next to impossible to work on anything unrelated to the conflict.
Reserve duty in particular has become a major challenge for business across Israel as more than 350,000 people were called from their homes to join the war, taking them away from work — including the tech sector. In real estate, meanwhile, some of the biggest growth in recent years has been in so-called smaller “periphery cities,” places that have been impacted by the war and in some cases even evacuated.
Controversy erupted this week over a newly approved wartime budget, which some members of the Knesset railed against since not all the money was allocated to the war effort. Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich backed his budget plan, saying there was enough money at the moment to support military matters and all other areas.
Ultimately, Smotrich’s ministry will be the one to give a green light to Revivo’s new plan, which supporters argue could help to increase investment from places such as France and the United States.
Tech has become a backbone of Israel’s economy, and a reason why even in global economic crises the Israeli economy can remain resilient. Indeed, tech has accounted for 14 percent of jobs in Israel and about a fifth of economic output. Last year, Israeli tech companies raised nearly $16 billion, the highest per capita in the world, after raising $27 billion the previous year. The tech sector also accounted for about half of Israel’s exports and 30 percent of tax revenue.
The Jewish state has consistently been among the world’s ten largest tech ecosystems in terms of funding despite being much smaller than its competitors at the top of the list.
The post Israeli Lawmakers Seek to Lower Capital Gains Tax to Draw Foreign Investment Despite Gaza War first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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After False Dawns, Gazans Hope Trump Will Force End to Two-Year-Old War
Palestinians walk past a residential building destroyed in previous Israeli strikes, after Hamas agreed to release hostages and accept some other terms in a US plan to end the war, in Nuseirat, central Gaza Strip October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa
Exhausted Palestinians in Gaza clung to hopes on Saturday that US President Donald Trump would keep up pressure on Israel to end a two-year-old war that has killed tens of thousands and displaced the entire population of more than two million.
Hamas’ declaration that it was ready to hand over hostages and accept some terms of Trump’s plan to end the conflict while calling for more talks on several key issues was greeted with relief in the enclave, where most homes are now in ruins.
“It’s happy news, it saves those who are still alive,” said 32-year-old Saoud Qarneyta, reacting to Hamas’ response and Trump’s intervention. “This is enough. Houses have been damaged, everything has been damaged, what is left? Nothing.”
GAZAN RESIDENT HOPES ‘WE WILL BE DONE WITH WARS’
Ismail Zayda, 40, a father of three, displaced from a suburb in northern Gaza City where Israel launched a full-scale ground operation last month, said: “We want President Trump to keep pushing for an end to the war, if this chance is lost, it means that Gaza City will be destroyed by Israel and we might not survive.
“Enough, two years of bombardment, death and starvation. Enough,” he told Reuters on a social media chat.
“God willing this will be the last war. We will hopefully be done with the wars,” said 59-year-old Ali Ahmad, speaking in one of the tented camps where most Palestinians now live.
“We urge all sides not to backtrack. Every day of delay costs lives in Gaza, it is not just time wasted, lives get wasted too,” said Tamer Al-Burai, a Gaza City businessman displaced with members of his family in central Gaza Strip.
After two previous ceasefires — one near the start of the war and another earlier this year — lasted only a few weeks, he said; “I am very optimistic this time, maybe Trump’s seeking to be remembered as a man of peace, will bring us real peace this time.”
RESIDENT WORRIES THAT NETANYAHU WILL ‘SABOTAGE’ DEAL
Some voiced hopes of returning to their homes, but the Israeli military issued a fresh warning to Gazans on Saturday to stay out of Gaza City, describing it as a “dangerous combat zone.”
Gazans have faced previous false dawns during the past two years, when Trump and others declared at several points during on-off negotiations between Hamas, Israel and Arab and US mediators that a deal was close, only for war to rage on.
“Will it happen? Can we trust Trump? Maybe we trust Trump, but will Netanyahu abide this time? He has always sabotaged everything and continued the war. I hope he ends it now,” said Aya, 31, who was displaced with her family to Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip.
She added: “Maybe there is a chance the war ends at October 7, two years after it began.”
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Mass Rally in Rome on Fourth Day of Italy’s Pro-Palestinian Protests
A Pro-Palestinian demonstrator waves a Palestinian flag during a national protest for Gaza in Rome, Italy, October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Claudia Greco
Large crowds assembled in central Rome on Saturday for the fourth straight day of protests in Italy since Israel intercepted an international flotilla trying to deliver aid to Gaza, and detained its activists.
People holding banners and Palestinian flags, chanting “Free Palestine” and other slogans, filed past the Colosseum, taking part in a march that organizers hoped would attract at least 1 million people.
“I’m here with a lot of other friends because I think it is important for us all to mobilize individually,” Francesco Galtieri, a 65-year-old musician from Rome, said. “If we don’t all mobilize, then nothing will change.”
Since Israel started blocking the flotilla late on Wednesday, protests have sprung up across Europe and in other parts of the world, but in Italy they have been a daily occurrence, in multiple cities.
On Friday, unions called a general strike in support of the flotilla, with demonstrations across the country that attracted more than 2 million, according to organizers. The interior ministry estimated attendance at around 400,000.
Italy’s right-wing government has been critical of the protests, with Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni suggesting that people would skip work for Gaza just as an excuse for a longer weekend break.
On Saturday, Meloni blamed protesters for insulting graffiti that appeared on a statue of the late Pope John Paul II outside Rome’s main train station, where Pro-Palestinian groups have been holding a protest picket.
“They say they are taking to the streets for peace, but then they insult the memory of a man who was a true defender and builder of peace. A shameful act committed by people blinded by ideology,” she said in a statement.
Israel launched its Gaza offensive after Hamas terrorists staged a cross border attack on October 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 people hostage.
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Hamas Says It Agrees to Release All Israeli Hostages Under Trump Gaza Plan
Smoke rises during an Israeli military operation in Gaza City, as seen from the central Gaza Strip, October 2, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas
Hamas said on Friday it had agreed to release all Israeli hostages, alive or dead, under the terms of US President Donald Trump’s Gaza proposal, and signaled readiness to immediately enter mediated negotiations to discuss the details.