Barak: Economic crisis is top priority

Labor's concession on demand to expand budget is expected to expedite coalition deal with Kadima.

By GIL STERN STERN HOFFMAN
Barak 224 88 (photo credit: AP [file])
Barak 224 88
(photo credit: AP [file])
Labor Party chairman Ehud Barak hinted on Monday that he would give up his demand to expand the budget framework due to the current international economic crisis. In a meeting with Histadrut Labor Federation Chief Ofer Eini, Industrialists Association Chairman Shraga Brosh and other business leaders, Barak said that all of Labor's demands in the ongoing coalition talks are still on the table but resolving the economic crisis must be the top priority. "I think that right now the most urgent thing is to deal with the economic crisis," Barak told reporters at the meeting. "The strength and intensity of the crisis obligates us to deal with it first." Barak's concession to Kadima on the matter is expected to expedite a deal between Kadima and Labor, because the economic issue was said to be the biggest stumbling block. Livni also addressed the crisis in a meeting with the Middle East Quartet's representative in the region, former British prime minister Tony Blair, in Jerusalem. "Israel requires stability, and fast," Livni told Blair. "The right way to deal with the crisis is to remove the current uncertainty and to create political and economic stability that will enable the government to prepare in advance the necessary plans to deal with any situation that may arise," she said. Coalition talks continued on Monday with Labor, Shas and Meretz, but talks with United Torah Judaism were postponed because UTJ MK Avraham Ravitz is in the hospital. The talks with Meretz focused mainly on the economic issue. Meretz requested to receive two ministerial portfolios and the chairmanship of a Knesset committee for its five MKs to equate its standing with the Pensioners Party, which has four MKs. Meretz's insistence on a second portfolio is due in part to a deal Meretz chairman Haim Oron made with his predecessor, MK Yossi Beilin, whereby if the party entered the current government, Beilin would serve as its minister. In the talks with Shas, no progress was made in the dispute over child welfare benefits. The Shas representatives told their counterparts in Kadima that the party opposes any negotiations on Jerusalem in any way, shape or form and will not sit in a government that has on its agenda diplomatic talks on Jerusalem. The upgrade in Shas's threat against the coalition on Jerusalem was seen as tied to former Shas leader Aryeh Deri's decision on Monday to not appeal a court ruling preventing him from running for mayor of the capital. Kadima officials expressed concern that Shas chairman Eli Yishai would prefer to initiate an early election so that it would be held before Deri is legally permitted to return to politics and challenge his leadership of the party. When asked about those concerns in interviews on Monday, Deri called them "nonsense and speculation" and said the only fear people should have is of God ahead of Yom Kippur. Yishai responded to the international economic crisis by saying that it would not cause him to back down on his request for child welfare benefits, which he said were even more necessary at a time of an economic crisis. "If they don't give the money to the children now, there will be teens at risk later," Yishai said. "The international crisis requires that the benefits be given now to prevent a social crisis. There are enough fancy international economic committees helping the rich. It's up to us to help the poor." The Likud central committee convened at the Tel Aviv Fairgrounds where Likud MKs took turns criticizing the economic and diplomatic policies of Kadima and Labor. Likud chairman Binyamin Netanyahu called upon the government to intervene to prevent Israel from getting enveloped in the crisis. Netanyahu accused Livni of trying to form a narrow government with the Arab parties and of going too far in diplomatic negotiations with the Palestinians. "Olmert and Livni's approach is to give everything away for nothing, including the Jordan Valley and Golan Heights," Netanyahu said. "People are talking a lot about the stock market, but in the diplomatic stock market of Kadima, there are only sellers."