The trade war between the United States and China escalated last week, following an announcement Aug. 1 by President Donald Trump that he would be imposing tariffs on Chinese imports, and a retaliatory decision Aug. 7 by the Chinese to stop the import of American agricultural products. Just one day before that, the United States announced that China was engaged in currency manipulation.

So far, Israel’s election campaign made no reference over this international crisis, even though it could have significant consequences for the Israeli economy. In fact, economic issues barely appear at all in the various parties’ campaigns, and if they do happen to appear, they are hidden behind an irrelevant series of personal attacks.

A quick look at the Blue and White party’s Twitter account shows that among the dozens of tweets made during the first days of August by the party that hopes to replace Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the Likud party, only one — a reaction to an article about the deficit — actually dealt with economic issues. Nor did Blue and White’s campaign videos discuss the economy, apart from a few generic statements about maintaining a responsible economy without hurting weaker sectors of the population.

The state deficit is a very serious issue. In the first seven months of this year alone, the deficit hovered around 24 billion Israeli shekels ($6.9 billion), more than twice what it was in the same period last year, when the deficit was “only” 11 billion shekels ($3.1 billion). What this means in practical terms is that it will be necessary to raise taxes or repeal tax exemptions and benefits, while at the same time implementing a series of budget cuts.