An interview by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu with Channel 10, days before the election, sparked a heated debate in the economic community and the tech sector. In the interview Netanyahu acknowledged the possibility of banking sanctions on Israel, and said he had asked for a plan based on blockchain technology that could help circumvent them.
Bank of Israel: it won't work
The Bank of Israel firmly rejected the idea. "Cryptocurrencies cannot serve as a route to bypass sanctions," the bank said, adding that the priority should be preventing sanctions in the first place. Netanyahu later said he had heard the bank's objections and would take them into account.
The tech sector responds
The Israeli High-Tech Headquarters called the idea of an isolated economy running on crypto "absurd". A group of 109 economists, business leaders and former officials warned of irreversible damage to the economy if international sanctions are imposed. On the political side, Gadi Eisenkot called it the "BibiCoin vision", and Naftali Bennett warned of "the destruction of Israeli high-tech".
The other side
Not everyone sees this as a real plan. According to a Jerusalem Post analysis, Netanyahu did not present a crypto economy as his preferred option but as a contingency plan for a rainy day, and critics inflated a cautious remark into a full vision. Either way, the debate shows how sensitive Israeli tech, which depends on investment, customers and banks abroad, is to any hint of economic isolation.
