Netanyahu, Lapid Punish Families With Children and Bennett is Silent

Only the wealthy won't feel Binyamin Netanyahu and Yair Lapid's latest budget cut, which reduces "child allowances" to a pitiful joke. 

Where just a few years ago families received as much as NIS 400 per child, the payments for children will fall to NIS 140 (less than $40) per child per month... Arutz 7

Contrary to Lapid's rantings, it's not the lazy unemployed sector that will feel it the most.  Those families with almost no income get various welfare subsidies; it's the working poor, who even with the previous child allowances barely finished the month. 

I have no idea how Lapid has come up with his so-called facts:

“We will help needy families and set aside hundreds of millions [of shekels] to make sure no children go hungry, but [the cuts] are a historic move from a culture of allotments to a culture of work.”
Beginning on August 20, parents will receive only 140 shekels per month for each child born after June 1, 2003.
According to Lapid, National Insurance Institute (NII) child allotments perpetuated poverty instead of stopping it.
“There is only one thing that allows families to get out of the cycle of poverty – work. The poverty rate in families with two working parents is under 5 percent.” Indy News of Israel

Apparently, Yair Lapid is just as anti-religious and anti-chareidi as his father was.  He just packages himself differently. 

For Haredi families, this severe cut in income comes coupled with a severe curtailing of funding for yeshivas and kolelim—by 30 percent this coming year, and by 60 percent the following year. Jewish Press

Lapid's timing is extra cruel considering the season.  Summer is extremely, unbearably expensive for families with children, no matter what their income.  Children on vacation from school need to be minded, cared for which is expensive.  Summer camp, vacations, babysitters, bathing suits, crafts etc. are difficult for many parents to pay for.  You see many parents taking their children to work, because there's no alternative especially when they are working at low wages.  Sometimes it costs more to go to work than to stay home.  By reducing child allowances it can become completely financially impossible for both parents to work.

Even before these new child allowance cuts, parents were finding it difficult to pay for school supplies, books and the expenses for the upcoming Jewish Holidays.

Israel doesn't have much of a parliamentary opposition, but I hope this latest government move galvanizes them to action.

“It injures where it’s supposed to heal. Once again, [Finance Minister Yair] Lapid is taking advantage of and encouraging a mistaken and inciting idea that haredim and Arabs are the only ones who are harmed by budget cuts. First of all, a child is a child is a child.”
According to Yacimovich, the average family will lose NIS 2,000 per year because of the allotment cuts.
The Labor issue took with a statistic Lapid cited – that only five percent of families where both parents work are poor – and said that 65 percent of poor families are working families.
She added that there are 870,000 poor children in Israel, more than any other Western country.
“This is an economic and national mistake, evil for its own sake, and a total detachment from people’s regular lives,” Yacimovich wrote.  Jerusalem Post

But my big question concerns to silence from Lapid's buddy, Naftali Bennett. A large portion of Bennett's NRP-aka Bayit Yehudi voters will be losing thousands of shekels a year in this government decision.  Ignored by Lapid, Netanyahu and Bennett, who is also in the government coalition, is the fact that many, many families that will be losing thousands of shekels a year are from the dati Le'umi, national religious portion of the population.  They voted on the whole for NRP and Likud.  There's a good chance they won't be able to afford to make that mistake again.

Israeli National Budget, Not Leaking Money in "The Settlements"

As usual, Ruthie Blum hit the nail right on the head in her Israel Hayom article, Tax shekels poorly spent .  The Left loves to blame the normal living expenses of communities in Judea and Samaria for Israel's budgetary problems.  But the truth is totally different.

Caroline Glick, Moshe Arens, ?,

Ruthie Blum at the Emanuel Winston

Yahrzeit.

First of all, as Caroline Glick mentioned in her talk at the  2nd Yahrzeit of Emanuel Winston, the Israeli economic growth is far better than the American or European.  Contrary to Yair Lapid's scare-mongering, our economy is strong and healthy.

Blum wrote about the terrible results and financial wastes of the Masa Israel Journey program, which instead of encouraging support and aliyah of young diaspora Jewry is fermenting more extreme Leftist anti-Israeli activists.

A recent article by Greer Fay Cashman mentions the over budget expenses of President Shimon Peres.

No one will deny that Peres is the most active of Israel’s nine presidents to date, and travels abroad with far greater frequency than any of his predecessors.
Because he has to take several senior staff and security people with him, the cost of such flights becomes inflated, and last year came to NIS 8.4m.
What the Calcalist report does not mention is the exorbitant cost of flowers.
There are huge floral decorations in abundance at the President’s Residence, and they are changed two or three times a week – especially if there is a state dinner, when the flowers gracing the tables and displayed in giant urns in the reception hall are in the national colors of the visiting head of state. Today, when artificial flowers look so real, there could be a savings of hundreds of thousands of shekels – maybe even millions – if all state institutions made a huge initial purchase of artificial flowers that could be rearranged to suit the occasion.

And about the so called "extra expenses" of the settlements.  That's one of the Left's favorite lies.  Think about it.  Schools, medical centers and other services are needed for citizens wherever we live.  It actually cost less to build in Judea and Samaria, because there's more empty land and real estate cost less.  Teachers get the same salary wherever they live, and rural bussing to school cost the same if in the Negev, Galil or the Shomron.

Housing is less expensive in most Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria, so families with lower incomes can live more comfortably.  That's a simple example of supply and demand.  And when families can live more comfortably, than there's less need for welfare and all sorts of social services.  The more homogeneous communities are also socially stronger, helping each other which also reduces government expenses.

As we all know, the Left doesn't let facts get in the way of their ideology.

Lapid's Marie Antionette Style Budget

There isn't much  good I can say about our new Finance Minister's budget, except that Yair Lapid has a lot of guts.  There's hardly anyone, especially among those who voted for him, who likes and agrees with Lapid's first budget.  I agree this the detractors here.  This budget makes no sense to me.

In terms of the cuts in the military, it's outrageous, ridiculous and dangerous.   On one hand Lapid and the Israeli government still say that they want to draft pretty  much all the chareidi men, claiming the army needs them, but if the military budget is reduced, there won't be money for that.  And that's one of the simpler points to ponder.

With a vote in the full cabinet expected Monday on Finance Minister Yair Lapid’s budget proposal for 2013- 2014, the security cabinet met throughout the day Sunday and into the night to parse out NIS 4 billion in proposed cuts to defense spending.

I agree with Professor Ron Breiman that reducing army service will only endanger us.

Only once before in Israeli history has a similar measure been taken, and only two draft classes were able to enjoy it. I'm talking about those who were drafted in August and November of 1964 and served only two years and two months. Not long after, the quiet along Israel's borders, since 1956, was broken and the winds of war began to blow from Egypt, Syria and Jordan. The result was the Six-Day War in 1967.

In the years following the Six-Day War -- the years of the War of Attrition, the Yom Kippur War, the First Lebanon War -- it was clear to everyone that there was no choice but to maintain the three-year mandatory service policy. Only in the 1990s , when the bells of "peace" rang in "the new Middle East" did country's leaders think again about shortening military service. This time, however, the easing of the security burden was directed at the reserve army, not towards changing the three-year mandatory service policy. The reserve service cut-off was lowered to 40 years of age, the need to receive a permit for travelling abroad was cancelled, and more.

It will make a much less professional and competent IDF.

I call it a Marie Antionette budget, because it harms the poor more than the rich.  In a rare move, I agree with Labor's  Shelly Yacimovich.

According to her figures, after factoring in tax changes, price increases, National Insurance Institute child allotments and so forth, the bottom 10 percent of Israelis would lose a whopping 25.1% of their income while the richest decile would only lose 2.2%. The majority of the changes stemmed from proposed reductions in child allotments.
“A picture arises of a heavy bur- den from difficult, regressive, non-egalitarian cuts that clearly hurt the poor and middle classes, primarily, and hardly touch the rich,” Yacimovich said.

I work in one of those minimum wage jobs, and none of us have any "fat" to trim from our budgets.  So, big deal if the wealthier will take fewer trips abroad or keep their cars a year or two longer.  For many of us those sorts of luxuries are just dreams.

Please add your opinions on the various aspects of Lapid's budget in the comments, thanks.

The Voters Are Complaining of Being Conned

Sometimes I really get a kick out of how Jewish things are here in Israel.  Yes, I do complain frequently that it's not Jewish enough, but once in a while there's one of those "wow, only in Israel" moments that keep me going for a long time. *Read to the end, please.

Yair Lapid, Israel's newbie Knesset Member, leader of the second largest political party, Yesh Atid and our Finance Minister had been coddled and  touted by the media as the "great white secular hope."  Now that they succeeded so well in getting him elected, he's in position to be criticized.  There isn't a ministry that attracts anger more than the Finance Ministry does.

A feature newscast about a local politician in a southern city who had campaigned for Lapid is now complaining bitterly.  His townspeople gave Yesh Atid a very high percentage of votes, and now with Lapid's austerity budget they are going to suffer greatly.  Lapid campaigned that he wanted to help the middle-class.  His budget which includes raising taxes and decreasing benefits makes life a bit harder for the upper middle-class, (the income that Lapid touts as being "middle,") but it means starvation for the lower middle-class and those who try to survive on minimum wage and standard fixed pensions.  That's most of the population.

The ministry is looking to cut government spending by some NIS 6.5 billion (almost $2 billion) in 2013 and by NIS 18 billion (some $5 billion) in 2014, largely through the cuts in defense, child benefits (NIS 2 billion or $560 million) and transportation infrastructure projects (NIS 1.2 billion or $336 million). (complete article)

NRP aka Bayit Yehudi's Naftali Bennet has expressed his full support.

On Thursday, Economics Minister Naftali Bennett (Jewish Home) came out with emphatic support for his political ally Lapid.

That has his voters upset, too.  Miriam blogged this:

If this headline is true, you will not get another vote from my family. http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/167877#.UYua9qLfCSo

We are pensioners who like many seniors live on a fixed income. Raising the VAT to 18% is going to hurt. Chopping the child family allowance is dreadful, and adding 18% VAT to basic daily..fruits and vegetables is immoral. Most people use their family allowance to help pay for grocery and school bills [tuition, clothes]. The average family will not be able to buy fruits and vegetables for their children. Fruits and vegetable promote good health. Adding the VAT to hotels will keep many tourist away and that will hurt our economy. The domino effect, employees will loose their jobs, putting more people to seek unemployment benefits. MK Bennett, we didn't vote for you to team up with Yair Lapid..He says, "I'm not my father" the truth is he is worse than his father..his father went through hell and back, what's Lapid's excuse..I'll tell you, he is an elitist who doesn't live from pay check to pay check and doesn't care about families that do..We didn't vote for you to be the anti haredi spokes person..some of your comments leave me shaking my head. We voted for you, because you said you would protect Eretz Yisrael...Bibi is calling for a building freeze in Yehuda, Shomron and East Jerusalem. Why aren't you screaming "NO, NOT ON MY WATCH!" Up to now, your actions have made me very sorry I wasted my vote on your party...  

*The TV news broadcast ended with:

"This is not the son we prayed for."

I had to laugh.  That's a play on a very famous Biblical verse.  It's from Chana's Prayer.  And davka the story of Chana took place in Shiloh.

1 Samuel Chapter 1 שְׁמוּאֵל א

כז  אֶל-הַנַּעַר הַזֶּה, הִתְפַּלָּלְתִּי; וַיִּתֵּן יְהוָה לִי אֶת-שְׁאֵלָתִי, אֲשֶׁר שָׁאַלְתִּי מֵעִמּוֹ.

27 For this child I prayed; and the LORD hath granted me my petition which I asked of Him;

Simply put, a large percentage of Israeli voters feel they were conned.

Chodesh Tov and Shabbat Shalom.  I must hurry up to join my friends for Rosh Chodesh Prayers at Shiloh HaKeduma, Tel Shiloh.

Who in Israel Really Needs "Open Skies?"

My husband is one of those whose trip abroad this week may not happen.  Israel's new Finance Minister Yair Lapid campaigned to help those he calls "middle class," those making, like his Riki Cohen family, almost five times minimum wage and just over double average wage for a couple. 

Riki Cohen, a widow from Hadera, earns NIS 4,500 ($1,234) a month. She can only dream of earning NIS 20,000 ($5,485) a month, like the fictitious family of 'Mrs. Riki Cohen,' mentioned by Finance Minister Yair Lapid in his controversial Facebook post.
In his post, Lapid also said the 'Cohen family' travels abroad once every two years. "Is he serious? I've never been abroad," the real Riki Cohen told Ynet Tuesday.

Yair Lapid's concept of a "middle-class salary" is upper class, according to the real financial statistics here in Israel, especially considering that Riki Cohen's family can afford to travel abroad every two years.  Lapid doesn't consider that frequent enough and in one of this new government's first big moves is to open Israeli skies to the very competitive airfares.

In response, the Israeli airlines, including El Al are striking.  My husband, not being among the privileged, sophisticated frequent travelers didn't realize that he should have cancelled his El Al ticket and quickly bought one from a different airline. Reports are that the airport will start shutting down tomorrow.  This is not good for Israel.

Considering that another of Lapid's, and no doubt we should remember that Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu must certainly approve these moves,  budget changes is cutting child allowances which seriously affects the lower and true middle class families.

Those spending cuts include NIS 4b.-5b. from the civil service, NIS 3b.-4b. from defense, with an equal amount from child allotments and NIS 2b.-4b. from infrastructure spending.
Yet a representative for Lapid would disclose only that the budgetary framework includes new taxes on affluent goods such as luxury apartments and cars.

So, I guess we can conclude from those budget changes that Lapid puts children in the same unnecessary or optional category as luxury cars.  Does he expect Israelis to somehow down-size their families by "deleting" some of their children?

It seems pretty obvious that this is a Marie Antoinette  government whose theme is:

"Let them eat cake."