Heavy pressure by the Prime Minister's Office on the Ministry of Finance has yielded a generous NIS 420 million for United Torah Judaism and the National Religious Party (NRP) for supporting the 2005 budget in its three Knesset readings.
The Ministry of Finance tried to reduce the amount, but it was only responsible for negotiating with the NRP, which received NIS 130 million. The Prime Minister's Office alone handled negotiations with United Torah Judaism, which received NIS 290 million, part of which was also supposed to cover the needs of the NRP's yeshivot hesder (IDF units that combine Jewish studies).
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon pressured the Ministry of Finance to make concessions to United Torah Judaism as part of a long-term plan to obtain its support for the disengagement plan to offset the NRP's opposition to the plan. "Sharon has no religious party supporting the disengagement plan," said one of his associates.
The concession to United Torah Judaism was defined as compensation for budget cuts to Torah schools over the past two years, and as equalizing support given to secular schools.
The concession to the NRP is mostly for supporting religious-Zionist schools, religious services and settlements. However, the party's final support depends on an agreement that the Dovrat report on education reform will not harm the state religious school system.
Sharon today opened talks to ensure a majority for the budget, which is now planned to be submitted to its first Knesset reading on Wednesday. Sharon threatened to fire Shinui ministers if the party carried out its threat to vote against the budget.
As of now, if the 15 Shinui MKs quit the coalition, there will be no replacements for last night's agreements, and the coalition will have only ten or eleven votes in favor of the budget, because there is no assurance that all 40 Likud MKs will vote in favor.
Published by Globes [online] - www.globes.co.il - on November 29, 2004