The two big parties have each received more than forty
million NIS in funding for the elections for prime minister.
This is in addition to 120 minutes of free time each party
will get on both television and radio for election
broadcasts.
The other parties in the Knesset have also, for some reason,
been allocated funds, even though they have no candidate
running for prime minister. The formal justification for
these allocations is that they have to finance a campaign to
support one of the candidates. Each party received about
400,000 NIS per MK. The big challenge the parties, and
especially the big parties, are faced with now, is to spend
(waste?) these enormous sums in the little time that remains
before the elections. Past or future costs and debts are not
taken into account. The whole sum must be used only during
the next few weeks. Any sums left over after the elections
must be returned to the State, and no party is ready to
return money received so easily.
How is it possible -- asks Nechemia Shtrassler, economic
correspondent of Ha'aretz -- to spend so much money
within a few weeks? Do the parties intend to hand out money
to citizens? What will happen to prices when everybody knows
that the parties have to spend all their money by the 6th of
February? Who will become rich? Friends? Relatives? Secret
partners?
Shtrassler cites the example of Shinui, which is to receive
2 million NIS to campaign for the candidate it prefers. This
party has a regular weekly advertisement in one of the local
Russian language newspapers. The week the announcement was
made about funding for the elections, the party's treasurer,
Avraham Poraz was notified by the paper that the price of
their advert was going up to 40,000 NIS, an increase of 400
percent over the previous week!
"The newspaper is of the opinion that it too is entitled to
a share of the loot," says Shtrassler. He writes that all
sorts of businesses are trying to sell their wares:
advertising devices, telephone listings, automatic dialers
and so on, all for inflated prices, because everybody knows
that the law forces the parties to spend the money quickly,
and that they are not permitted to use the funds to cover
debts.
Then again, who is interested in these funds, when such a
fuss can be made about "the theft of public funds" by Torah
institutions and the payment of Child Benefit allowances by
Bituach Leumi to large chareidi families?
