Blue and White insisting that two-year budget pledge be honored to forestall dissolution of government before Gantz can become prime minister.
By JEREMY SHARONShas leader Arye Deri (right) and UTJ leader Ya'acov Litzman (far left) attend a meeting in Jerusalem.(photo credit: REUTERS)
Ultra-Orthodox parties Shas and United Torah Judaism will not oppose Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu if he insists on passing a one-year budget instead of the two year budget that the coalition agreement between Likud and Blue and White calls for.Shas MK Moshe Arbel told The Jerusalem Post on Monday that the party supports a two-year budget but would not fight Netanyahu if he seeks to pass a budget just for 2020, while sources close to UTJ leader Ya’acov Litzman made similar comments.The dispute over the budget is becoming ever more pressing as the deadline for passing a budget before the Knesset is automatically dissolved at the end of August rapidly approaches, and with trust between Netanyahu and Blue and White leader Benny Gantz in short supply.According to the coalition agreement between the two parties, if a budget is not passed on time, the party which prevented the passage of a budget or which voted against it will be blamed for the dissolution of the Knesset and the head of the party which supported it will serve as prime minister.Since failure to pass a budget automatically leads to the dissolution of the Knesset, Blue and White had the two-year budget clause inserted into the coalition agreement as a way to forestall any attempt by Netanyahu to topple the government before Gantz gets to become prime minister as laid out in the agreement with Likud which formed the government.But if Blue and White were to insist on passing a two-year budget and torpedoed a one-year budget, the Likud would blame the former and insist that Netanyahu remain in office during the following election campaign.Indeed, Finance Minister Israel Katz said on Sunday on Radio 103fm that “if a [one-year] budget is brought to a vote and Blue and White topple it they will lead the country to elections.”Blue and White had been hoping for backing from the ultra-Orthodox parties, particularly Shas, whose MKs have indicated they support a two-year budget.Arbel told the Post that the party did indeed favor a longer-term budget since any one-year budget passed now will only cover the short amount of time remaining of 2020, and that it was therefore more worthwhile to pass the two-year budget.He said however that the party “would not break up the coalition” over this preference and would support Netanyahu if he insists on just the one-year budget.Senior UTJ MK Moshe Gafni has stated strongly his preference for a one-year budget, stating recently that the country was in an “economic situation in which we don’t know what to expect, what will happen in 2021,” adding that the country has been operating for too long without a budget and that he therefore supported the one-year option.A spokesperson for Blue and White insisted, however, that the party is still seeking a two-year budget, saying that the economy needs “long-term stabilization” and that a one-year budget covering just the last three months of 2020 by the time it is passed in August was “irresponsible” and insufficient.
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