Yesterday, an anonymous message from Likud News was distributed to party MKs and many activists, saying: "Watch the infuriating video, which shows that the Likud has become Smotrich's rag. The time has come to take care of the residents of Ofakim, Sderot, Ashkelon, Netivot and Kiryat Shmona. The Likudniks are not second-class."
Despite Barkat's absence and opposition from the state camp, the addition to the budget law was approved in its first reading \\ Knesset Channel
Do not be alert, you do not lose anything: the video is just a TV article about the budget, and in general, from such announcements do not make huge dramas anymore. But the chatter in the corridors of the Knesset translates this into questions about who is the politician behind the announcement, who they are trying to burn, at whose expense is the spin and to whom such a message is politically beneficial. That's how the budget is: an economic matter that is entirely political.
Once again, especially in the ruling party, the budget creates a political divide that could be explosive when the plenum votes draw closer. Yesterday, it was Nir Barkat who threatened that if another NIS 250 million was not transferred to businesses, he would not support the budget. He was absent from the plenary vote.
Absent from the vote, Nir Barkat, photo: Oren Ben Hakon
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is debating how to treat Barkat: Should we go to war against him and even fire him – or let him go and leave him with his threats and with masses of angry Likudniks?
On the one hand, there is nothing to get excited about by Barkat's opposition. One MK who abstains or opposes is not so bad when there are 63 who will vote in favor – especially since at a time when the country is at war with difficulty, Barkat's opposition is relegated to the margins of the news. If anything, any reference by the prime minister, like the phone he picked up yesterday, looks like a courtship trip and will only "lift" Barkat.
On the other hand, as in many cases, Netanyahu prefers to "kill" crises when they are small. Don't let them develop. The concern is that ahead of the votes in the second and third readings, additional ministers or MKs will join. Dichter Under heavy pressure from farmers, Edelstein is showing signs of anger that budgets don't just go to fighting, and from here to the objections of MKs like Dalal or Revivo, who have already raised difficulties in the Finance Committee, the distance is not long. Suddenly, the government will find itself at risk of falling in the critical vote on the budget.
Barkat Fellows Are Angry Too
Apart from the fear that the budget will fall, Barkat's party colleagues are also angry with him. They claim he smells elections at the end of the war and continues his campaign for party leadership on their backs. At a meeting of the Likud faction last Sunday, it was already on the air. Amsalem, Barkat's biggest rival in the party, claimed: "There are Likud MKs in all kinds of corridors who speak against Netanyahu. Gentlemen, we are a democratic party. Whoever wants, can cope. This conduct conveys a sense of disintegration." So far it was without names. Later, this event will explode loudly.
In any case, the Knesset held the emergency conference yesterday "The Economic Failure – Budget '24/23", initiated by opposition leader MK Yair Lapid. "Above this budget there is a black flag," Lapid said. "It's not a budget – it's a patently illegal order for Knesset members to steal public money during wartime in order to do politics.
"Stealing public funds", Yair Lapid, photo: Oren Ben Hakon
"I call on the coalition Knesset members: What are you going through? How do you let that happen? How do you do this to our soldiers and commanders? Families? For the reservists? How do you do this to the people of Israel? It can't be, just incomprehensible to me, that they don't understand that everything has changed. That this country has changed. That you can't go on as if nothing happened. There is a new contract here and a new Israel.
Office expenses are rising
"There is no way to justify the fact that at a time when every Israeli citizen is shrinking, expenditures on government ministries and ministerial offices rise from NIS 786 million to NIS 1.06 billion; that the Jerusalem Ministry jumped from NIS 26 million to NIS 68 million so that it would have enough money to do nothing; that the Ministry of Heritage jumped to 101 million; that Strzok's office tripled its budget to 343 million; That the Ministry of Regional Cooperation, whose only area of operation is political appointments, jumped from 21 million to 38 million. I could go on, but I'll leave it to the professionals to detail the rest of the horrifying numbers.
"There is no way to justify the fact that while we are fighting for our lives, while IDF soldiers are donating foreign bodies for ceramic vests and hips, the government is doing the most pathetic, most self-interested, most shameless politics, with money that could have helped reservists, fighters, small businesses that have been severely damaged, entire communities that have been evacuated from their homes."
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