Israeli Prime Minister announced the formation of a panel of experts to hold a dialogue with the leaders of the tent protests

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu Sunday announced the formation of a panel of experts to hold a dialogue with the leaders of the tent protests.

Meanwhile, he and Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz both think the downgrade of America's credit rating last week and Europe's economic crisis are warnings that Israel must stick to a fiscal policy of curbing spending and paring down debt.

Their concern is great enough that senior treasury and Bank of Israel officials held an emergency meeting on the economy at midnight on Saturday. The atmosphere of anticipation was only heightened by yesterday's stock market collapse, when leading indexes in Tel Aviv plunged 7 percent.

Steinitz, interviewed on Army Radio yesterday, noted that Israel has certain constraints, such as defense spending, which is necessarily higher than the Western norm, and must also be careful not to increase the deficit. "We don't want to be in the situation of Greece, Spain and other countries," he warned.