"It's time to appoint a project manager in the government to deal with the cost of living" | Israel today

The Minister of Innovation, Science and Technology, Orit Parkash-HaCohen, is determined to address the rising cost of living in Israel.

In an exclusive interview with Israel Hayom, she points an accusing finger at Netanyahu's governments, but also does not spare her criticism of the conduct of the change government in all that concerns the treatment of lowering the cost of living.

"The time has come to appoint a project manager in the government to deal with the cost of living", she reveals part of the economic platform of the state camp led by Benny Gantz.

Benny Gantz in an interview with Israel Hayom.

"Netanyahu broke his promises", photo: Gideon Markovich

"A person whose main task will be to make sure that government decisions on lowering the cost of living are promoted and implemented according to very clear goals of education, of consumer product prices, housing, etc. I think he should be in the Competition Authority, with a very, very clear vision and goal from the government and with powers Make sure things are done."

"We will not sit with Netanyahu"

Farkash HaCohen is in tenth place on the list, and she coordinates the plan to lower the party's cost of living, with the goal of reaching "an executive and economic role that will concern every citizen of the State of Israel" in the next government as well.

Right now the polls are predicting 12 mandates for you.

Do you believe you will be able to reach more?

"I very much believe that we will be able to achieve more. I am even sure that it will happen. We have to understand that we have almost 30% of those who are undecided, and this is also what happened in the previous elections, and in my opinion, at the end of the day, if there is one thing that unites the entire public from all shades of the rainbow, it is that everyone wants a question There will be the last elections. Everyone wants stability, and in the end, in this reality, the options are very clear - it's either Netanyahu's extreme government with Bin Gvir, it's or sixth elections with Yair Lapid because Yesh Atid is unable to form a government, and we know its glass ceilings. And the third and only option that can answer the desire for a broad and stable government is Benny Gantz."

How exactly can this happen?

"There is no other politician today in the political reality that heads of parties from all ends of the political spectrum come and say that his leadership, as prime minister, is acceptable to us, we want and we respect his position as prime minister. It is a rare thing that the ultra-orthodox parties say so, and by the way the Likud also says so because it is a fact that they proposed For my son to be prime minister more than once.

The sum, by the way, of all these parties, without the Likud, which results in 71 seats.

And then even if one party or another says I'm leaving this puzzle, we have the numbers of a stable government.

Benny Gantz made a revolution and a bang in the political system, because it is a fact that since he joined the political system, what was is no longer what exists - Netanyahu is unable to form a government.

Gantz is a national leader who brings with him experience in security and diplomacy and connecting the public.

In my opinion, the ambition is for as many mandates as possible, but in the end I think the story is not the story, but the fact that from a practical point of view a prime minister is one who can and is capable of bringing the majority of the public's representatives in the Knesset to say we want him as prime minister."

You kept saying that you wouldn't sit with Netanyahu, can this even happen in a situation where there is no 61, and the only option is Netanyahu and Gantz?

"No. We will not sit with Netanyahu in any constellation. Even during a difficult time of the corona virus, when we thought the interest of the emergency period we entered with the corona virus required it, we did it, and we realized that this is not a government that can take care of the public interest, and we talked about things such as the cost of living."

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A shopping cart in a supermarket // Photo: Yehoshua Yosef,

What kind of minister would you like to be if you were in the government?

"Benny Gantz knows that it is important for me to be in a place that is efficient and economic and that touches every citizen of the State of Israel, and that is where I aim for a position that will affect the lives of the people for the better. The office I am in today, the Ministry of Science and Innovation, is a very, very significant office that has changed its face."

What do you say about Ayelet Shaked's flick-flack, will it help her know how to pass the blocking percentage

"I will not go into the political strategies of Ayelet Shaked, I do appreciate the fact that she is a female leader in a political system, which is not an easy thing. I think that the state camp is the home for religious Zionism. We are a list full of religious Zionists who are very connected to these values, of Bnei Akiva and of A connection between all parts of Israeli society, and we have an impressive representation, which is not on any other list."

Will you be willing to sit in a coalition with Ben Gabir and Smotritz?

"We will not sit with Ben Gabir's party, we will not sit with extremists from any side. The thing that upsets me the most about this party is that they are called religious Zionists, as someone who comes from there - that insults me. This is not religious Zionism, of excluding women, which uses discourse Violent towards different communities in the State of Israel, this is not the religious Zionism that I know, that I believe in, and I think that the right home for people from the religious, moderate, state, respectful Zionism is the state camp."

In your opinion, has the current government done enough in the fight to lower the cost of living?

"We have to understand that a great many of our problems have accumulated and are exploding in our faces as a result of Netanyahu's rule, especially when you add to this the last few years in which he refused to pass a budget, which means in simple words there is no work plan - the ministries are paralyzed, the ministers are paralyzed. No one can think that two years in which a ministry Housing was paralyzed without a budget and without serious plans in housing, this will not be reflected in a traffic jam of apartments that did not go on the market and created a great shortage and skyrocketing prices.

But if we as a government have taken care of the cost of living?

Yes, we took care but not enough.

I definitely have criticism for things that were not done.

This is not a destiny to pay much more for toothpaste, shampoo, razors or diapers than abroad. This is due to an unacceptable reality. 91% of the men's razor market is marketed by the same supplier, the same importer, does it make sense that over 50 % of the toothpastes in Israel are marketed by one group? Or is 70% of the margarine marketed by the same importer? And that's the whole story. Each such importer does not own just one product, he has hundreds of products that he links to this product. He comes to the supermarket and can do as much as possible His spirit. There is not enough competition."

So what did you do to fix the distortion?

"In this matter, the government took a very important step - opening up these areas to imports and competitors, but in my view, what the government did is not enough, because it should have done more. I have been talking about this for at least six months. I am very disappointed by the fact that the Minister of Health did not include more products, The significant products are not included in the import reform.

I had countless conversations with the Minister of Health about this, I had loud arguments with the Director General of the Ministry of Health right after the budget while still in the government, in which I told him that all the most expensive products are not included in the first round of the import reform, and they said that we are against it, that Harms public health, it needs to be monitored. My argument with them meant that the expansion of the reform was brought forward a year. It is good that the state started the import reform, but in the end it should not have waited and expanded the list of products included in it, and in that sense, not enough has been done."  

Will the completion of the import reform lower the prices of imported products?

"You can't be satisfied with just bringing in competitors, because it will be very difficult for competitors to deal with the reality of such dominant importers in the field of food and toiletry products. The government needs to give more tools to the authority of competition, to really deal with this situation for a specific period of time in which we have individual importers with such power An unusual market - whether it is by limitations on the exclusivity agreements, or limiting the scope of the basket they provide to the marketing authorities, whether it is by checking the barriers in the marketing networks.

"Furthermore, the taxation on purchases on international websites should be lowered on the products concentrated in Israel. When there is one importer who owns 90% of the market, then we will be able to import ourselves, so that every citizen will be a source of competition against that importer for a certain period. The price differences of imported products Between Israel and abroad, this is simply a result of the distorted structure that has been created here, that every time the government conducts negotiations with the importers who are in their best interests not to raise the prices, this should not be the method."

Free nurseries from birth to 3

"I am coordinating the program to lower the cost of living of the state camp, and one of the most important sections in which I have been leading since the previous government is free education for their children aged 0-3 for working couples in the State of Israel. Israel is hugely behind in the government's participation in education expenses and in supporting young couples and education expenses The soft, and this has an effect on social disparities, the data show that if the children are not in educational settings, it affects their level of development and may harm their ability to earn in the future.

Playing in kindergarten, photo: Oren Ben Hakon

"But beyond that, I also come from a place of the cost of living. The young couples, working in the State of Israel, are facing collapse. How much can they afford? It is difficult for them to buy an apartment, their consumer goods are expensive, they are at the beginning of their lives, that is, they have not yet reached their peak their income, and they are at a time when, in addition to all these heavy expenses, they are also raising small children and find themselves paying many thousands of shekels for each child in these settings. They actually have to take out another mortgage and sometimes more every month for the children. This situation often affects going to work Many women sit at home simply because it is not financially profitable for them to send their children to these settings."

It seems that everyone is in favor of allowing free education up to the age of three, but this is a very expensive program, where will the money come from?

"We have done very significant economic work, which was presented to both the Minister of Finance and the Budget Division, which shows that the state will earn a lot more than it will spend on this program. The women who will enter the labor market will not receive income guarantees, the taxes paid to the state will increase, the young couples will be able to spend more because they will have more A disposable income of thousands of shekels a month. And of course the value it will give to the children themselves is simply worth much more to the state than the expenditure. We did a graduated program over 5-6 years, starting from the ages of 2 to 3, and gradually decreasing to younger ages, and this thing pays for itself. I I think there is no more important expense than education, and this is not an expense, but simply an investment."

 It seems that Benjamin Netanyahu has also started to understand this...

"I was very amused to see his video on this subject, after I was a minister in the Netanyahu government, we were unable to promote it because he was not really interested in these things, he refused to pass a budget, refused to deal with long-term things. Another issue that is very important to me to promote is the adjustment of vacations of Israeli children for vacations in the labor market, it is also related to the cost of living, each week of vacation during Passover and Hanukkah costs parents thousands of shekels."

How do you summarize the first year in office as Minister of Science and Technology?

Not worried about the contraction of the high-tech industry?

"From the data we have, 2022 appears to be the second best year for the high-tech industry, except for last year, which was a very unusual year in raising capital. We do see a worrying trend in the number of new start-ups opening, this is also part of the maturing of the market. We are in the government through the Innovation Authority and my office wants Cultivate as many new companies as possible in the market, because today's startup can be tomorrow's big success that will employ more people. Today's startup is tomorrow's industry.

In the year and a little in my position, I was involved in strengthening these infrastructures - if it is in terms of personnel - in the plan of employment goals for 2030 that I passed in the government and the Dadi Perlmutter committee that I established, and in fact I passed a very significant decision with employment goals, strengthening education in technological professions, if it is the education plans that I did, the high-tech class plan Which is very, very dear to me and excites me every time anew to see 300 children from the 8th grade from around Ashdod who started hi-tech studies as part of the curriculum.

On September 1, the pilot of your program and that of the Minister of Education "Education for Hi-Tech" began, how is it progressing?

"When I took up my position in the office, I actually saw very clear data - on the one hand, the industry is thriving, a world leader, on the other hand, when we look at Israeli society, the fruits of this success are not shared by all citizens of the State of Israel, but mainly in the 03 area code. This is particularly noticeable in the data regarding The youth - there is no equal opportunity for every child in terms of exposure and the right to choose to integrate into this industry. A child from the periphery or an Arab child has much lower chances of reaching high-tech than a child from the center of the country, so I decided to promote this program.

"The idea behind it is simple - every child in the State of Israel from compulsory kindergarten to eighth grade will learn high-tech studies, learn to make a presentation, speak in English in front of the class, receive guidance from high-tech people and be exposed to what it means. The idea is that within five years the program will become part of the curriculum in the system - Not as enrichment, not in the afternoon. We started the pilot this year in 1,000 8th grades, in 2,000 compulsory kindergartens throughout the country, with an emphasis on the periphery.

"What moved me the most was when I arrived in Ashdod (Prakash HaCohen originally from Ashdod - SG) for the seventh circle, I saw that the teachers and the principal were very enthusiastic about the program.

When I arrived at the division, one of the teachers told me that the eighth grade students told him: 'Why are we studying high-tech, it's not just for the outstanding, it's not just for the gifted?'

So that's it, that's exactly the goal of the program, to make this thing accessible to every child, who will have an equal opportunity."

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