The new, 462-page economic plan contains hundreds of laws
that reduce the national budget by a total of NIS 11 billion
($2.4 billion). The first half of the budget slashing
received Knesset Finance Committee approval early last week
(which is all it needed to take effect) and two days later
the second half (which required Knesset action) passed a
first reading in the Knesset.
The Finance Committee cut NIS 210 million ($46 million) from
the yeshiva budget, delivering a severe blow to the yeshivas
and kollelim. Another NIS 50 ($11 million) was sliced
away from the Ministry of Religious Affairs' budget for
religious services and other areas.
The Knesset voted in favor of the second part of the plan,
which eliminates the maternity grant ("ma'anak
leidah") except for the first child and equalizes child
support payments ("kitzvaot yeladim") for all of the
first ten children. If the plan receives Knesset approval in
second and third readings the equalization will be
implemented in four phases, starting after the plan receives
approval and ending in January 2006.
Another paragraph would amend the law providing military
deferments for talmidei yeshivos for whom Torasam
umnasam. According to the proposed amendment every
yeshiva student who receives a deferment for at least four
years and is 23 or older would be eligible to work after his
set study times. The proposed amendment is ostensibly
designed "to allow him to increase his income without relying
on support from the state budget."
MK Rabbi Ravitz said this paragraph proves more than any
other that all aspects of the plan affecting the chareidi
sector are based on ideological rather than economic motives
aimed at altering the chareidi way of life and lowering the
value attached to Torah study and Torah scholars.
The plan also contains a paragraph that places a cap on the
number of deputy mayors at local authorities. According to
the proposal, local authorities with fewer than 10,000
residents would receive no funding for a deputy mayor. In
cities with 10,000-50,000 residents, only one deputy mayor
would be allowed. In cities with 50,000-100,000 residents,
two deputy mayors would be allowed. And in cities with over
100,000 residents, a maximum of three deputy mayors would be
allowed. If approved in second and third readings the
amendment would rescind the special law that allowed the
appointment of eight deputy mayors in Jerusalem, permitting
only three such appointments after the upcoming municipal
elections on 3 Sivan. The deputy mayors are the only salaried
positions on the city councils, aside from the mayors.
The economic plan requires the merger of local authorities
based on a list appended to the plan; wage reductions in the
public sector; layoffs in the public sector; municipal tax
increases; reforms in the Electric Company and the
electricity industry and the cancellation of the Electric
Company monopoly; increased tariffs for water; unfreezing
various laws such as the Housing Loans Law; reforms in the
domestic Bezeq services market and the addition of other
providers; reform in the Broadcasting Authority and granting
licenses for broadcasting stations; accelerating income tax
reforms; imposing a tax on foreign workers; changes regarding
pensions; reductions in all Bituach Leumi allotments; and
more.
During the Knesset plenum, United Torah Jewry MKs lodged
harsh criticism against various aspects of the economic plan.
MK Rabbi Yisroel Eichler said, "The leftists in power have
tried in the past, over the course of many years, to impose
`progress' in the form communism and socialism, which have
collapsed. Today the rightists in power want to impose
capitalism. Both of them want to stop the Jewish way of life
handed down from generation to generation. And we say to this
government and to the wealthy magnates who dictate their
path: you will not succeed in forcing our children to abandon
the religion of their forefathers . . . [And] even if you
starve large families we will not stop filling the country
with Jewish children and, be'ezras Hashem, we will
make up for the one million children who perished and were
killed in the Holocaust . . . "
He also argued that ceasing government support for the 18,000
talmidei yeshivos from abroad--despite the fact that
they bring a considerable amount of money into the economy
and in many cases stay in Israel permanently--gives the
impression that the government is trying to effect an anti-
Jewish revolution in the guise of an economic revolution.
MK Rabbi Moshe Gafni said he was not addressing the smug
Shinui Party or the Mafdal, which is only interested in
gaining seats, but rather Likud members who are divided in
their opinions. He reminded them of the NIS 800 million ($177
million) budget cut in housing grants for eligible young
couples and warned that this decree would not harm rich
people from Kfar Shmaryahu but the poor and residents in
development towns, i.e. Likud voters. "A bank executive who
earns NIS 150,000 ($33,000) per month will not have to pay
for health insurance or insurance fees [Bituach Leumi
payments] while a housewife will. They are deducting from
child support payments and giving money to the bank executive
who earns NIS 150,000. We are standing before a social civil
war. This plan will not benefit anyone, will not bring
growth, will not create jobs, will not accomplish anything.
Instead the country will descend toward a gaping pit."
Rabbi Gafni also challenged the 30 percent cut in the yeshiva
budget compared to the 2 percent cut in the higher education
budget. "Why? Can someone explain this to me?" he demanded.
"The salary and benefits of one university professor or
department head could keep a yeshiva running for a whole
year. You will not be forgiven for this vote. You will not be
able to hide behind the back of Sharon, who has betrayed all
of the ideologies he preached for years when we were with
him."
MK Rabbi Meir Porush called the government spineless and
without values. The government proclaims it wants to fight
against Hamas, he said, but meanwhile it is robbing
["chomeset"] bread out of the mouths of the poor and
small children. "How are they to blame for the fact that
politics here is so dirty and seeks to strike a blow because
the chareidi sector is involved?"
He also criticized the plan for showing skewed priorities in
budget cutting. "Why does the Finance Ministry Comptroller
need five assistants? And why does the Finance Ministry
Budget Director need another five assistants? And why does
the Attorney General need five deputies? And what is the
purpose of maintaining the President's Office, which is not
an executive institution, at a time when we need money for
children and poor people so they have bread to eat?"
