I'm sure that's part of it (as well as the large child support payments to the Ultra-Orthodox), but being so close to the U.S. should also expose you to the problems of the U.S. The real estate market is still doing fine, largely with purchases by foreigners for homes to retire to and wait for the Messiah (some parts of Jerusalem are nearly ghost towns as a result), and one would expect that that would come to a stop once they run out of money, but that hasn't happened.