Blocking Bezalel Smotrich's car at the entrance to Channel 14/according to Section 27 A of the Copyright Law
The Minister of Finance, Bezalel Smotrich suffered a blow this week.
In fact, it was not him who suffered, but his entire camp - the United States is tired of the fact that under Israeli military rule, the laws are not enforced at all on a small part of the residents of the settlements, and that handful, on its part, takes advantage of the loophole to harm the Arabs.
This step by the Americans has many consequences, but we will start with one of the fastest of them: a demand from Israeli banks to freeze the accounts of all four customers on whom the presidential order was imposed.
Otherwise, the Americans warn, the Israeli banks will be exposed to lawsuits and sanctions, theoretically up to disconnection from the SWIFT global payment system, just like the restrictions imposed at the time on the banks in Russia - and anyone who continued to work with them in the West.
The Russians still had an escape route with the help of friends from Beijing to Tehran.
Israel, needless to say, has slightly fewer options.
Bank Leumi was the first to straighten up and announce that it would freeze, as required, the two "forbidden" accounts maintained by it.
What did the Minister of Finance, Bezalel Smotrich, do?
He announced that it will not and will not happen and that he is ordering the banks not to respect the order...
One can debate the degree of hypocrisy behind the decision.
It is true that anyone who harms members of another nation solely out of a racial motive deserves every sanction, but as long as there are accounts around the world, including in the United States, that flow money or launder it for terrorist organizations that harm Israelis and Jews around the world, it is not clear why the Americans specifically treated four Israeli citizens , even if it is difficult to add the word "innocent" to this title.
The Minister of Finance and the Minister of National Security.
The pursuit of that "base", causes irresponsible behavior/Ruben Castro
But the considerations of the United States are with him - so it remains to examine the statements of the Minister of Finance. Let it be said right away - Smotrich has no way of "ordering" a commercial bank to act in one way or another, certainly not to violate the American directive. The banking system in Israel is independent and subordinate only to the Bank of Israel and the Banking Supervision Department. For its part, it does not want and should not veto the demand, since such a veto would mean a fatal blow to a Hefetz Chaim financial institution.
What can the Minister of Finance do? Promote legislation that would prohibit banks in Israel from freezing local accounts in response to international sanctions. Spoiler: Although How many puzzling decisions the current government has made, it will not make this decision - or maybe it will make a declarative one, but it will not be implemented.
Such legislation will make Israel a leper far beyond the consequences for relations with the US, it will make the banks in Israel unable to carry out international transactions .
This may fit the agenda of some of the government's supporters, but for the majority of the public, it really doesn't.
If anyone should fear for their position and start a fight against the Minister of Finance, it is mainly the residents of the settlements.
The constitutional status of these is problematic - they arose (with the exception of a few outposts) with the approval, not to mention the encouragement, of Israeli governments for generations, from the days of the first Rabin government to the present day, but in terms of international law, they are sitting on occupied land.
Confrontation with a sanction imposed only on the few who are outside the consensus even among the settlers of Judea and Samaria - and by a Minister of Finance who is considered one of their prominent representatives in the Knesset, will turn out to be a self-imposed goal that will harm their financial conduct, individually, as communities and as settlements.
It should be added that an American boycott has effects not only on the banking channel but also on all trade with the United States: so far we have recognized restrictions such as those imposed on export products from the settlements (with most of the boycotts Israel has successfully dealt with), but what will happen when the opposite boycott is announced, that is, on Israeli organizations and companies that operate in the territories of Judea and Samaria or even sell their products there?
A powerful solution to pain
A revolutionary pain treatment technology has been approved by the FDA for home use
In collaboration with Solio
The backing of the Prime Minister and the Minister of Finance to those who were imposed the presidential decree, causes damage to relations with the USA, but does not change anything on the ground/Government Press Office, Haim Tzach
The Minister of Finance is aware of all this, but a bit like with the freezing of funds both to the Palestinian Authority (logical) and to Arab councils within Israel (a scandal), it is more nonsense, bombastic statements intended for the ears of the base and less for implementation.
So yes, anyone who wants to can complain about the double standards operated by Washington, but the residents of the State of Israel should be more concerned about the gossip of those in charge of the public purse.
"If the price is the imposition of American sanctions on me - so be it," said Smotrich defiantly, when he demanded the banks not to respect the presidential order.
The problem is that he may be driving like a reckless hillbilly boy, but serves as the Minister of Finance of the State of Israel, therefore - whatever "happens" is a possible harm to all of us.
IDF soldiers in Gaza. No one can say how much the war will really cost us/IDF spokesman
the extra number
This week we were informed that the deficit in the state budget for the next two years may be much higher than initially estimated.
How high?
Here it seems that every number wins - and not because the treasury officials don't know how to calculate, but because those who disappear in this equation continue to pile up on the table: the
war days, for example, are an excellent example - some initially hoped that this was an operation that would last for days, some estimated weeks, some said months - And now there are those who talk about years... so "years" probably not (because then it really would have been better to drop an atomic bomb on Gaza, as Minister Amichai Eliyahu demanded) and absorb the sanctions, but a year is no longer an unreasonable estimate, certainly not when four months already Behind us and the end is not in sight.
How much does each combat day cost?
It depends on who you ask - the payment for reservists depends on their number - and it varies according to the tasks defined by the IDF. Another key parameter is the armament - even the one given to us from the US as aid, they are not given for free.
Does the mission receive expensive air backup?
And more - and it depends not only on us, but also on the enemy.
Thus, for example, the damage to Hamas' launch capabilities resulted in a saving in interceptors on the Israeli side (remember how many missiles Iron Dome had to intercept two months ago and how many today).
And all this does not stop here - because evacuees from the north and the south cost money, production and agriculture are also affected due to the absence of recruited workers, the various forms of compensation have not been completed to the end (as the story will prove later), the physical rehabilitation of the ruins has not yet begun - and of course there are also other expenditure items which is very difficult to quantify (I know we are already tired of hearing the phrase "the day after", but if, for example, a military government is established in Gaza, as suggested by some of the cabinet ministers, then we expect additional expenses).
And even after all this, how much revenue will the state lose as a result of the expected decline in business activity?
I'll spare you the guesswork: in the entire Ministry of Finance, you won't find even one official who knows how to estimate - and not through his fault, of course, but because war is a dynamic matter that is not conducted according to a predetermined budget.
Minister of Absorption Ofir Sofer, why tell the truth when you can talk about equal burden and blame the opposition?
to lie without shame
So far it is clear why it is difficult to calculate the war expenses definitively, but what is not clear is where the money will come from.
A possible pullback in Israel's credit rating will make the loans that the government will take out to close the deficit very expensive - and financing expenses will become a large and painful item in the budget, just like in the private accounts of each of us when interest rates rise.
One could have expected the government to streamline, to present an emergency plan - and not just plans (some of which are empty) of aid to the reservists, which will be cut to set an example for the citizens, who will be forced to give up some of the pleasures of life to which we have become accustomed in the coming year.
It's just that a look at the budget proposal that is placed on the Knesset table shows that it is not so - and a look at those who submitted this bad budget for Knesset approval, reveals that it might have been naive on our part to expect any manifestation of responsibility, even a symbolic one.
On Thursday morning, after the voices of criticism of the budget increased - and it turned out that the government's promises to the reservists remained mostly on paper, Ofir Sofer (for those who don't remember, the minister of absorption), from the finance minister's party, was sent to smear the public with more lies (Keshet 12 morning program , interviewed by Nesli Barda).
The minister rolled his eyes to the sky, complained about the wickedness of the opposition - and continued to echo the lies of the head of his party, about "equal burden".
It's true that they lie to us, we've gotten used to that - even from a party that was originally a home for the disciples of the glorious Zionist movement called "Bnei Akiva" - but to believe that we're all idiots?
It's already insulting.
The usual Yuval (Job), Julius Distillery.
Who can even dive into the small resolutions that make a business big?/Yulius Distillery
Enter wine
No, we will not dwell here on the fateful question of whether the mouth of the minister (who is in charge, among other things, of the authority of the government companies) Dodi Amsalem smells of vodka or marak (I am of the whiskey school - if it wasn't so sad, it could be funny), but Let's take a look for a moment at a local case that illustrates the problems in the various forms of compensation offered by the state to business owners.
The Julius Distillery
, for example, in Kibbutz Hanita, is a masterpiece of Zionism.
Zionism in a small way, but look at the beauty: quite a few years ago, the usual Yuval (Job) decided to establish a distillery that would try to package the Israeli terroir (the landscape, the climate, the vegetation and even the human touch) in a bottle.
He began distilling a kind of local grappa, brandy based on Israeli grapes, gin seasoned with juniper, za'atar, and more - and wonderful fruit distillates, all based on the good yield of the land (which was "blessed" by bad bureaucracy, but that's another story).
Later he also added some non-distilled alcoholic products, such as vermouth which is the pattern of his native landscape, tamad (from honey) and more.
Not only Zionism was in this beautiful project, but also professionalism - and the distillates were a great success, sold well, became part of the alcohol menu of any self-respecting bar or restaurant, the quantities also dictated the gauntlet to the dictates of kosher - and the future looks incredibly refined.
The war prevented access to the distillery.
On one of the calm days, a "rescue operation" of the inventory was carried out.
Despite the (to put it mildly) temporary inconvenience, Julius manages to sell her produce well - from the inventory, of course, but not to produce new inventory, which, as mentioned, is based on picking, harvesting or picking, which was supposed to be done in areas some of which are exposed to Hezbollah fire.
If you package all of this into something for which compensation can be demanded, then Julius's troubles (we wish for the distillery, of course, that it will not be so) will begin when the stock runs out, without new stock being created.
But then it is possible that there will no longer be a war - so from whom and for what can we ask for reparations?
Go explain to the officials, even they are armed with good will, that the work now is not to sell what is already aged in barrels taken out of the distillery, but is intended to produce stock that will be sold months to years from now.
And this is of course just one example of the complexity of a small business, a pioneering enterprise that brings out the glory of the Western Galilee in Israel and throughout the world - and this is the place to add that this is not a poor business that could collapse, but on the contrary - a person and an enterprise that I am sure will stand well on their feet even in the absence of sufficient assistance (of course not They face things at other, weaker businesses).
What is left for us to do?
Maybe just raise a glass, wish for the safe return of the abducted and all our soldiers to their homes, wish success to the fighters in the field - and if we can also ask for ourselves, that we get decision makers who will be worthy of the devotion of this people, which stands out more and more with every interview of a moralist and a politician greedy.
More on the same topic:
Bezalel Smotrich
Gaza war
the state budget
reserves
Compensation
War of Iron Swords