Liberman: We’re not counting on the opposition for approving the budget, but we expect Idit Silman to at least refrain from voting on budget cuts for the ultra-Orthodox.
Finance Minister Avigdor Liberman expressed confidence in the ability to pass the upcoming government budgets at a conference of the Institute of Certified Public Accountants last week.
Passing the budget
“We’ll pass the budget in the Knesset on June 23. The Ministry of Justice asked for some more time to review the budget,” said Liberman. “Since the opening of the summer session there have been daily insinuations that the government isn’t functioning, but we’re passing laws day after day. Yesterday we passed the Sale Law.”
Liberman, who was hosted by the Chair of the Institute, Chen Schreiber, added that “the opposition doesn’t support anything yet we’re passing plans week after week. We’ll pass the budget by the end of the summer session and we’ll later pass the 2024 budget as well.”
What about Silman?
Asked whether there were talks with the opposition to support the budget, and if MK Idit Silman would support him, the minister replied that “there isn’t any contact with the opposition. Silman has resigned from the coalition and it’s still unclear which right-wing party she will join. Is it to the right of Netanyahu, who previously changed the course of the flag parade and also hijacked missiles? Netanyahu speaks high, and then folds.”
“As defense minister, I ordered the evacuation of Khan al-Ahmar, but Netanyahu stopped it. As for the budget, I expect Silman to at least refrain. I am sure we’ll pass the budget even without her.”
Finance Minister Avigdor Liberman
On the law restricting cash holdings at home, the finance minister said that “black capital is hitting and strengthening the underworld. We want to be on the list of countries fighting black markets. We have sectors that work with cash. There are countries that have taken out all their cash. It has doubled revenues and reduced crime.”
On the abolition of the addition of the coalition to the meetings and if this step was done for political reasons, Liberman replied that “it’s impossible to be both the most anti-coalition force and to receive coalition money. I am outraged that the state is investing in vocational training, but idlers are also being funded. ”
“In yeshivot gedolot (where men aged 18 and up study instead of doing army service), you do study, but ‘kollel’, where married men study, is a social framework,” said Liberman. “Those who study until the age of 29 will no longer become a rabbi or at least a neighborhood rabbi. We have 62,000 people for half a billion shekels, who don’t want to work and it’s clear to everyone that it’s a social framework. This money funds idleness.”
“The state funds and we exempt them from core studies. There is no contradiction between Torah studies and core studies. I’m not prepared for the state to fund the exemption institutions. They have 60,000 children who aren’t allowed to study computers and math.”
Finance Minister Avigdor Liberman
The Minister of Finance revealed that in the 2023 budget, a minimum benefit for the unemployed will be increased by NIS 500 to NIS 4200 per month, “while in the last budget we increased the allowance to 70% of the minimum wage. Also, we increased the annual grant for Holocaust survivors by NIS 1500 to about NIS 8000,” he emphasized.
Terrorist death penalty
Regarding MK Itamar Ben Gvir’s proposal to impose the death penalty on terrorists, he added: “I’m looking at Boston and it’s an advanced city and there a death sentence was handed down after the attack at the marathon. In Japan, cult leaders who sprayed nerve gas at a train station were executed. In the Yisrael Beiteinu faction, we submitted a bill at the time and passed it to the ombudsman. We signed a coalition agreement with the Likud and Netanyahu, but of course, Netanyahu didn’t promote it. The question is what Itamar Ben Gvir wants. If it’s a spin we won’t support but if it’s something real then of course we will support it. We have already composed the text for the bill.”