Netanyahu’s pitch: Can Israel use crypto to evade economic sanctions?

Two days before the general elections, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said that Israel should prepare to use cryptocurrency to circumvent potential sanctions on the country amid growing global isolation over its genocidal war on Gaza and settlement expansions in the occupied West Bank.Netanyahu on Friday said that blockchain-based cryptocurrency is the solution to bypass the mounting economic sanctions that would keep the country out of the international financial system.The Bank of Israel, the country’s central bank, rejected Netanyahu’s plan, and opposition parties said the incumbent prime minister’s vision is a recipe for disaster and increasing isolation.So, can Israel really circumvent sanctions by dealing in crypto?What’s behind Netanyahu’s crypto pitch?“We need to prepare ways to evade banking sanctions through an alternative economic system,” Netanyahu said in an interview with Israel’s Channel 10 last Friday.“You know what that means – the currencies that can bypass them,” he said, adding that he was referring to blockchain-based crypto.Netanyahu’s crypto pitch comes as Israel has been facing international isolation over its extreme policies against Palestinians: a ...