Against the backdrop of threats from Agudat Israel, Otzma Yehudit and Avi Maoz: Budget discussions will begin today (Monday) at 9:00 a.m.
The discussion is actually on seven bills that include two budget proposals for 2023-2024 and five complementary laws of arrangements. The discussion will be opened by Finance Committee Chairman Moshe Gafni and Coalition Chairman Ofir Katz and is expected to end after an opposition filibuster on Tuesday evening. The prime minister, finance minister and opposition leader will conclude the discussion and speak on Tuesday evening.
Around 20:30 p.m. to 21 p.m., hundreds of electronic votes and 00 Semitic votes will begin, which the coalition aims to finish by Wednesday evening. The deadline for passing the budget is May 21, if not, the Knesset is automatically dissolved. Human error due to voting fatigue is enough for a mistaken reservation to be accepted, which means a delay of several hours. In the tight timeframe, this is critical.
Schedule of budget discussions, photo: Kobi Gideon GPO
Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and the Likud are convinced that the budget will pass by Wednesday evening. However, as of this writing, the coalition has yet to find a solution to Agudat Israel's demand, which threatens not to support the budget if it does not retroactively receive an additional NIS 600 million for Avrahim and educational institutions starting in January 2023. Budgets are only for June and beyond.
Today a meeting of the Agudat Israel faction will be held, where they will decide on the next steps. Party sources say: "All the promises that will be taken care of in the future are a laundry of words, there is a lack of confidence in fulfilling commitments."
The ministers in a joint photo before the Cabinet meeting in the Western Wall Tunnels. A fateful week,
Experience in budgets
One of the compromise proposals on the agenda that is being negotiated is to pass the budget verbatim – with a commitment from the Ministry of Finance to Agudat Israel to add budgets at a later date – whose source will apparently be based on the leftovers that will remain at the end of the year in government ministries – millions that return to the state coffers. As noted, it is not yet clear whether Agudat Israel will agree to this compromise.
MK Israel Eichler of Agudat Yisrael attacked Netanyahu last night and threatened elections over the crisis. In an interview with Kikar HaShabbat, he said: "We need to reassess our position in this coalition. As soon as there is no (legal) reform, no recruitment and no budget (for Haredi education retroactively), we need to reconsider what we are doing. Perhaps there is a choice called elections. "Why is it selfish?" (Why in my case did the order of nature change?) in order to be chairman of the work committee? That's not what we're here for. If Bibi were a leader, he would pass the judicial reform, unless they staged a military coup and gave him a military coup, he has no control."
MK Israel Eichler threatens elections:
"We need to reassess our standing in this coalition. As soon as there is no reform (justice), no recruitment and no budget (retro education), we need to reconsider what we are doing. Perhaps there is a choice called elections. "Why is it selfish?" To be a working committee? That's not what we're here for. If Bibi... pic.twitter.com/Hwq2aAfdxa
— Yishai Cohen (@ishaycoen) May 21, 2023
At a cabinet meeting held at the Western Wall Tunnels to mark Jerusalem Day, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said: "I passed 20 budgets, there are always last-minute arguments and we will overcome them. To my political opponents, I say: Don't rush to celebrate. You transferred 52 million to Abbas and funds to the Joint List, which you didn't call looting or coalition funds. We are passing a responsible budget, one of the goals of which is to equalize conditions from an ultra-Orthodox child to a secular child, because an ultra-Orthodox child is not half a child, and no Haredi should hear the slurs on television. The fact is that under our government, we have succeeded in integrating the ultra-Orthodox sector into the labor market more than any other government, and we will continue to do so."
Dialogue meetings postponed
It should be recalled that Ben-Gvir is also flexing his muscles in light of his claim that Finance Minister Smotrich transferred many budgets to the national-religious sector, but not to the Negev and Galilee. However, it seems that despite the voices among his advisers not to compromise, Ben-Gvir will not harm the budget, especially in light of the fact that two members of his party do not want to vote against him.
Ben Gvir. Making Muscles (Archive), Photo: Oren Ben Hakon
Na'am Chairman Avi Maoz also joined the celebration and sent a letter to the cabinet secretary saying that if the government did not approve the budget for the Jewish identity authority as promised, he would actively oppose the budget and vote against it.
At the same time, the President's House announced that there would be no dialogue meetings on the reform because of budget schedule constraints. The sides say the talks need to take a decisive turn and decisions need to be made going forward. "The dialogue talks will take place this week directly and intensively between the staff of the President's House and representatives of the parties," the President's House said, "at the request of the parties and due to the Knesset's schedule, it was not possible to convene joint meetings this week, and in the future, joint meetings of all the teams are expected to take place."
Participated in the preparation of the article: Shirit Avitan Cohen
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