Next week there will be a marathon of votes in the Knesset plenum to approve the state budget for the years 2023-2024. The latest line is launched against the background of threats heard from the chairman of Otzma Yehudit, Minister of National Security Itamar Ben Gabir, and members of his party about cutting funds for the Negev and the Galilee, as well as Agudat Israel’s demands for additional funds.
High Court, refusal of the authorities and tax revolt: what is expected in the future of the fight in the property tax fund?
MK from Otzma Yehudit against Smotrich: “He passed a huge budget to Sara Struck”
Member of Knesset Boaz Bismut was a guest at the Walla studio! with his Tal and referred to Ben Gvir’s threats and said: “It is difficult to work with politicians. I say to my friend Itamar Ben Gvir: it is possible to reach 61 in other ways as well, but let’s preserve the situation. I don’t see the government falling apart. Ben Gvir like us has An electorate and has an expectation. We have work to do. We are allowed to quarrel in politics. Likud did not win 61 mandates, we must remember.”
There are other partners like Goldknopf who are causing problems for the budget
“This is politics. There is nothing new here. There is one essential thing between the budget now and the previous one. In the previous government when no one said a word, it is hard to forget the money the Muslim Brotherhood received. Everyone was silent. There were no such conversations at all.”
Another crisis that developed this week was with the local government and the strike of the local authorities following the approval of the property tax fund law in the second and third reading in the finance committee. “Don’t get excited by fights in politics. That’s part of it. These are fights in the family. If you look at the big picture, it’s not like shouting. You’re taking money that’s found. You’re not taking from someone. You’re just distributing something a little differently. We want to encourage housing, we want to encourage the periphery,” said Bismuth .
The property tax fund does not necessarily take from the center to the periphery
“Once again they blame the ultra-Orthodox for taking money. Jerusalem is also one of the donors. Bnei Brak too. How many holes are there in this story. Let’s take Tel Aviv – 62 percent who come to the office are not residents of Tel Aviv. What will happen if they take the money of those offices and take them To other places? Attack the deficit and an inaccurate budget. Who says that? The chief economist at the Ministry of Finance. Where was the property tax fund born? Senior officials brought it. The amount is low.”
Haim Bivas, the head of the local government and a senior member of Likud, led the local government strike and received harsh criticism from home. “He is a friend and meat from us,” admitted the MK from the Likud in the studio Walla!. “We will solve these problems.” However, Bismuth also scolded: “There are still a few elections in the local authorities right? Local politics cannot be separated from the elections in November.”
Biebs said that if you tell the truth in Likud, you are a leftist
“A leftist is not a curse. Neither is a rightist. They even say it’s a compliment. I’ve been a Likud voter all my life, but a few months in the faction. At faction meetings there are also things that leak out. There are Knesset members who think differently and stay alive. You can criticize Likud from the top down.”
Perhaps the vote he took represents a significant portion of Likud voters
“In Likud it is allowed to disagree. But there is factional discipline. There are those who want it as it is and maybe there are those who want it at a different pace. Reality has shown that the great challenge is to be attentive to the minority as well.”
In the last months, that nation is going through a process of salvation and division. You experienced it too
“We are attentive to the public. The public wanted legal reform. We show responsibility, consider the minority, but personally I think there are a handful who have crossed the border and crossed every possible red line. A person expelled from a synagogue like me, liberal neighbors will come downstairs under my house and shout at me to go back to France. It cannot be that we are in France, me and members of the opposition, and they join the demonstrators against Israel.”
Is legal reform alive or dead?
“She will pass. I really hope she will pass already at this conference. She is bound by reality. We have known each other for many years. The opposition is not built from the same skin. Lapid and Michali’s struggle is with the protest leaders. There are people, especially in the state camp, who have realized that there is a challenge to pass the reform and within Maintaining unity in our nation.”
And if there is no agreement, should it be transferred unilaterally?
“We are not there. I am very optimistic. There will be reform because we are committed to it. I am not a supporter of standing with a stopwatch in hand.”
