Labor Chairwoman Shelly Yacimovich accused the government Tuesday of abandoning
plans for the 2013 state budget, telling the annual Calcalist conference in Tel
Aviv that it has no choice but to call elections.
“Instead of taking
responsibility, the state – with [Prime Minister Binyamin] Netanyahu at its head
– is quiet. It is quiet in the face of the great wave of layoffs, it is silent
in the face of the wildness of the capital markets, it is silent in the face of
the distorted distribution of bank credit, and it is silent – frighteningly – in
that it is not preparing a budget.”
Netanyahu is trapped in an old way of
thinking, Yacimovich argued, in which he sees the state as the problem rather
than the solution. She added that the “breakdown” of companies controlled by
tycoons such as Yitzhak Tshuva, Kobi Maimon, Lev Leviev, Ilan Ben-Dov and Nochi
Dankner requires the government to act with courage and think
unconventionally.
Communications, Welfare and Social Services Minister
Moshe Kahlon (Likud) addressed the budget debate in his speech to the
conference, saying that there is no need to raise taxes or cut
expenditure.
Providing the example of the Communications Ministry’s
cellular and television reforms, he argued that it is possible to create
revenues through reforms, streamlining, and cracking down on cartels and
monopolies.
Kahlon also addressed the issue of regulation, saying: “I
oppose this saying that there is too much regulation. Regulation is good and
important, but not at the level that the supervisor supervises the supervisor
and so on. At the moment there are too many regulators but not enough
regulation.”
Construction and Housing Minister Ariel Attias (Shas)
devoted part of his speech to the budget too, arguing that the biennial budgets
employed by the government in 2009-10 and 2011-12 damaged – rather than enhanced
– stability.
“The people who are most hurt by this are the weakest
citizens,” Attias said. He added that it was unimportant “what the populists say
about the welfare budget being allocated to specific populations,” arguing that
one million poor come from across the spectrum of Israeli society, and not just
from his own haredi community.
In regard to the ultra-Orthodox, Attias
said the public must understand that haredim want to be part of the labor force,
but that work places would also have to adapt to their own special
requirements.
Wishing everybody a Happy Jewish New Year, he said: “We are
all brothers... We in haredi society want to live in peace with everyone.”