The rising cost of bombing in Lebanon — and the rising cost of living in London

A poster on the District Line at Earls Court inviting me to holiday in ‘the 24-hour Mediterranean city, Tel Aviv’ made me want to know more about the local economic impact of the war between Israel and Hezbollah. The rather severe-looking bikini-clad model in the poster is probably in uniform by now, and if Hezbollah’s rockets have reached her home city by the time you read this, the ferocity of Israel’s response will be terrible to contemplate. Israel’s economy had been expected to grow this year at more than 5 per cent, but pundits have slashed their forecasts, and international investors who had bought into Israel’s high-tech and pharmaceutical industries have been running for cover. The northern city of Haifa, which has been hit by rockets, is home to research and development facilities for the likes of Microsoft and Intel, but few factories in the region are able to operate normally.