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Netanyahu admits Israel economically isolated, says will need to become ‘super-Sparta’Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu admitted on Monday that Israel is facing increasing isolation on the world stage, and will have to become a more self-reliant “super-Sparta” in the years to come.His comments, delivered as European countries have called for arms embargoes and sanctions against Israel during the ongoing war in Gaza, were seized on by political opponents and high-tech industry groups who blamed the premier for Israel’s troubled status on the world stage.“Israel is in a sort of isolation,” Netanyahu acknowledged, at a conference of the Finance Ministry’s accountant general in Jerusalem.“We will increasingly need to adapt to an economy with autarkic characteristics,” he continued, calling the term for economic self-sufficiency, closed off from global trade, “the word I most hate.”“I am a believer in the free market, but we may find ourselves in a situation where our arms industries are blocked. We will need to develop arms industries here — not only research and development, but also the ability to produce what we need,” he said.