ABSTRACT
In early 1985 the military withdrawal from Lebanon competed for attention with efforts to restrain inflation and to stem the outward flow of foreign currency. A conundrum is also likely to have numerous components, with disputes as to which are the most important. Israeli policymakers, like their counterparts in many countries, encounter the universal conundrum whenever they seek to decide about the influence of certain decisions on the conditions they are meant to affect. The specific conundrums of the Israeli economy are more pernicious than the universal conundrum. Problems that fit under the labels of national security and peace are no less multifaceted, ambiguous, and elusive of solution than the financial problems. The state comptroller of Israel has criticized some of the most sensitive issues of governmental activity. Israel's state comptroller routinely states that he does not criticize policy, only its implementation.
