The joke in Israel has long been “the only place a Jewish guy can’t get ahead (or, alternatively ‘a fair shake’) is Israel.
Israel is expensive.
Per capita defense spending is very high.
More over, many, many Israelis are poor immigrants from Arab countries or Russia who arrived with literally nothing. Absorbing them has been hard.
Trade is difficult, as Israel is effectively an island. Goods do not come “overland” in trains due to out neighbors being insane. They are either made in Israel or come by boat or plane.
Finally, there is a hold over socialist mentality in the government, which does not help. This is getting better, but it’s still bad.
In your last paragraph, the words ‘hold’ and ‘over’ should be all one word; holdover. As you wrote it, one has to be confused by the thought of someone having a HOLD over someone else, and discover that’s wrong, and go back and re-read it, and put the two words together as they need to be for the narrative to make sense.