A big piece of Yair Lapid's puzzle in assembling the list of his Yesh Atid party for the upcoming Knesset elections was put in place yesterday, when Jacob Perry resigned as chairman of Mizrahi Tefahot Bank (TASE:MZTF) to join the party. Perry, a former director of the Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet), will apparently take the number 2 slot in the party list, and serve as its defense expert.
Asked by "Globes" editor-in-chief Hagai Golan on the Globes TV "Face to Face" program whether it was a mistake to give Perry the number 2 slot in the party, Lapid said, "First of all, he isn't number 2. We didn’t talk about slots in the list. I think that the responses were very good. Of course, there are talkbacks who say that he is a hedonist. I don’t want to live in a country in which people are disqualified because they had a glorious past. He has a glorious past, both as head of the Israel Security Agency and as businessman. He is a man you can rely on when you bring him into a room. He has experience, he has a brain, and I am very pleased."
"Globes": Israel is in pretty good economic shape, isn't it?
Lapid: "I don’t think so."
There are economic numbers which indicate that the situation is relatively good.
"When he still had the courage to do something, the prime minister acted correctly in 2009. Since then, he's been preoccupied with handouts to his coalition partners. As for the figures you're talking about, unemployment is rising, private consumption is falling, there is no nuturing of small businesses.
"Something is wrong in the government's economic stewardship. Everyone says that education is terribly important, but the education budget has basically zero moeny for closing gaps. NIS 909 million in transfer payments go to yeshivas, because this is a backdoor to give handouts to the guys. Politics have taken the Israeli economy hostage. Foreign investment is almost zero.
"We’re in the first quarter in which exports to the US are greater than exports to Europe, not because exports to the US have increased, but because exports to Europe have fallen.
Europe is in recession. Does your bleak picture reflect the situation?
"It's not black, but the trend is clear. We're not Greece, but the direction is down. After all, the prime minister and finance minister told us ten weeks ago that they were going to cut taxes and duties on thousands of products because of our wonderful economic shape, and a month later, they told us that they were going to impose harsh austerity because of our awful economic shape. A month after that, Israel's prime minister faced the people and says that I'm going for elections because I cannot pass the budget because my partners, who I am supposed to lead, are blackmailing me. What does that say about economic management?"
How do you deal with the problem of narrowing the gap between the rich and the poor?
"Education, education, education is always the solution. We need in Ofakim and in Tel Aviv's Hatikva neighborhood and in Elad a 26% differential budget. Today, the differential budget in Israel is 4.5%, which is like telling the next generation that the gap is working against them, lump it, and don’t bother us. The return to technology education is essential if you want to close gaps."
You mentioned tycoons. Do you know that some people are saying that, ultimately, you are their most authentic representative, because your party is an Ashkenazi, centrist, and high income-earners party
"You can't complain to me when you don’t yet know who is in my party list, or characterize the list until you know who's in it. A person shouldn’t have to be sick to be a doctor. Our business is the Israeli middle class and that is what we are focused on. I came from it, I grew up in a three-room apartment in Yad Eliahu, not in Savion. I don’t want to live in a country or society that penalizes people because they succeeded or forces people to apologize because they had the chutzpah to succeed in life.
"I think that we've been taken over by a culture of hatred toward people who succeed and of jealousy, which must be fought. I am also infuriated that Yitzhak Tshuva gets a NIS 1.4 billion haircut. I read Judge Alshech's ruling. I saw her deliberations with herself, because she knows that this was immoral. It's legal, but it's immoral. I say that legal is fine. How is it that he is not ashamed to leave home, when he takes our money and loses it. But Stef Wertheimer is an Israeli hero, and Gil Shwed is an Israeli hero, the founders of Amdocs are Israeli heroes."
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on October 17, 2012
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