Is Netanyahu A Leftist?

By today's GOP standards, he surely is. Why? Because he is a deficit hawk:

Netanyahu, facing a budget deficit between five and six percent of GDP, executed across-the-board spending cuts, and raised a host of taxes and fees. The new measures, approved on Monday, will lower the deficit by 14.4 billion shekels ($2.56 million) to three percent of GDP — the government's target for the year. The country's value added tax will immediately increase from 16 percent to 17 percent, Reuters reported. Additionally:

The new measures include raising income taxes by 1 percentage point on those earning more than the average salary of 8,881 shekels ($2,198) a month starting in 2013. Taxes on salaries over 67,000 shekels a month will go up 2 percentage points. Income tax rates in Israel range between 10 and 48 percent.

Of course, Netanyahu is no more of a leftist than David Cameron in Britain (or Tom Coburn in the US). They all accept the banal, obvious, conservative role of some tax increases in restraining the deficit. Among Western conservative parties, only the GOP refuses even a 10:1 spending cut:tax ratio to cut the debt. Which helps reveal how more emphatically un-conservative and radical they actually are. And how dangerous they would be for the US and global economy.