It’s not about the historical reasons to why it became this high but I don’t think that if the situation would change to the point at which Israel only needs to

It’s not about the historical reasons to why it became this high but I don’t think that if the situation would change to the point at which Israel only needs to spend $10 bln a year on defense instead of 20 their economy would suffer. I also think that the defense industry is a red herring to some extent at least as far as it being the secret sauce behind their high technology industry. I would argue that the large immigration from Russia after the collapse of the USSR helped them more than their compulsory military service, as the joke goes when GLONASS goes down Russia dials +972.