In the shadow of warnings that the Israeli judicial reform will harm the economy, the government met for an exhausting overnight session between Thursday and Friday to try and approve the 2023-2024 state budget. Many ministers are not ready to compromise on lower budgets for their ministry, while Bank of Israel Governor Professor Amir Yaron warned that a fiscally responsible policy must be maintained. "Look what happened in Britain," he told ministers, recalling the downfall of Prime Minister Liz Truss shortly after she crashed the pound with an irresponsible economic plan.
The cabinet meeting was dispersed around 3:30 AM Friday morning amid difficulties in the discussion, and the ministers were instructed to prepare to return to the meeting at 9:00 AM, despite new reports indicating that the meeting was postponed to next week.
Simultaneously with the dispersal of the government meeting, the Ministry of Finance and the ministers continue negotiations regarding the budgets of their ministries. Among other things, there were sharp differences of opinion with the Minister of National Security Itamar Ben Gvir regarding the police budget, and at the same time the Minister of Education Yoav Kish insisted on promoting the "National Library Law" to remove Shai Nitzan, from his cultural position; claiming that his leftist policies are destructive to the Zionist ideal. In addition, the possibility of introducing the budget cut to the Public Broadcasting Corporation into the Law was also being considered.
#Israel will boost its defense budget in 2023 by over $2 billion to prepare for a strike in #Iran, @ynetalerts reports; budget will total over $18.5 billion, the report says.
— Israel Radar (@IsraelRadar_com) February 24, 2023
The first to break the rules of the talks was Minister Ben Gvir, who decided to boycott the discussions in advance when he realized that the sums promised to the police in the coalition agreements would not be transferred. "Netanyahu has to keep promises," he protested, and the talks with him are only being conducted behind the scenes. The differences of opinion with Ben Gvir were not resolved until the dissolution of the cabinet meeting.
Another difficulty noted at the cabinet meeting is, as mentioned, Education Minister Kish's insistence on promoting the "National Library Law", under which the appointment of members of the National Library's board of directors will be subordinated to the Minister of Education, and the law granting it independent status will be repealed.
- Itamar Ben-Gvir (Sécurité nationale), qui aurait reçu une promesse non-respectée d'1 milliard de shekel de la part de Netanyahou, et menace de quitter le Gouvernement.
— ERETZ Info (@EretzInfo) February 24, 2023
- Idit Silman (Environnement).
- Yoav Kish (Éducation).
- Haim Katz (Tourisme). https://t.co/81uTvkZmqi (2/2)
After him, Tourism Minister Haim Katz also expressed his anger, when he abandoned the discussion during the afternoon and said: "I will not participate in the funeral of my office." According to him, with the budget that the Treasury is proposing, the Ministry of Tourism will be closed in 2023.
