Defense establishment against Smotrich: Against the backdrop of Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich's vehement opposition to transferring money to the Palestinian Authority, the defense establishment warns that Minister Smotrich is harming Israel's war efforts for political reasons, since failure to transfer the money to the PA is liable to cause a violent outbreak in the territories to the point of an intifada, a fact that will require diverting forces and attention from the south and north to the Central Command.
The statement was made, among other things, in light of a statement issued this week by Smotrich: "I do not intend to allow the State of Israel to fund our enemies in Judea and Samaria who support Hamas terrorism and finance the 7.10 terrorists who murdered and massacred us.
"The Palestinian Authority is not the solution – it is part of the problem. We don't repeat mistakes and concepts that exploded in our faces."
The anger in the defense establishment against the minister stems from the fact that the IDF wants to focus on the southern arena and contain other arenas as much as possible. According to all senior defense officials, any action that might ignite Judea and Samaria is contrary to Israeli interests, and therefore his opposition to transferring money to a dangerous authority.
Statement by the Prime Minister and Minister of Finance, Photo: Hadas Frosh / Haaretz
Economic benefits
At a press conference held last night by the prime minister and finance minister, the two presented their economic plan for the war.
"We start with the reservists, because they are really the ones who need to be fully backed," the finance minister declared. "As we have already reported, we are promoting payment for reserve days: 100% for salaried employees and 125% for the self-employed, without forms, paperwork and claims, based on the material we know from the National Insurance Institute and the Tax Authority...
"We have 160,25 evacuees, 100,200 of them in hotels. That's a billion and a half shekels a month. These evacuees receive 100% of the salary they would receive if they worked. All residents who were evacuated in accordance with the government's decision will receive this. We, of course, cover all costs of stay. We created an alternative whereby instead of evacuating, they can go to a family or apartment and receive NIS <> per adult and NIS <> per child in cash."
Sonya Goroditsky and Yehuda Schlesinger participated in the preparation of the report
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