"We have completed the process of extricating Israel from instability," Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said at a press conference held yesterday evening to mark the passing of the budgets for 2021 and 2022. Minister of Finance Avigdor Liberman and Minister of Foreign Affairs Yair Lapid appeared alongside Bennett at the press conference.
"Within less than three months, we formed a government, withstood the pressures, and decided to be the first in the world with booster shots," Bennett continued. "We are protecting life without harming the economy. We have gone from unemployment to employment, emerged from negative growth, and now we have passed the budget, which ensures political stability and quiet, and by working together we have brought the ship to safe shores.
"Tomorrow morning, we are starting with a stable government," Bennett said. Referring to the approaching Hanukah holiday, he continued, "The citizens of Israel have entered the month of Kislev. Together, we are lighting one light after another, no-one is standing aside or being left behind. All of us, all of Israel's citizens, are important, we shall take care of everyone. The great test of the government is self-restraint. We shall maintain self-restraint, we shall set aside for the moment the rivalry between us, but at last there are no elections on the horizon. We shall join hands in order to take Israel, which has nowhere like it in the world and never will have, ten steps forward."
Liberman said yesterday evening, "I have never seen a level of cooperation between ministers like in this government. True, from time to time there are frictions and confrontations, and one talks and the other responds, but it makes no difference, on the budget I saw cooperation and mutual responsibility such as I have never seen before.
"The budget has two messages: stability, and economic growth," Liberman said. "These are assets that we must preserve. In addition, this is the most socially minded budget in Israel's history, over NIS 11 billion that we are investing in our social-national strength, from the arrangement with the disabled and disabled army veterans, the campaign against violence in the family, the increase in support for Holocaust survivors, and really a long series of items. These are great tidings. I look at the biggest project in the history of Israel, the metro, which will link 24 local authorities, 100 stations from Kfar Sava to Rehovot. This is in addition to investment of nearly NIS 600 million in artificial intelligence, a solar power plant at Dimona, and huge projects in sewerage and of course infrastructures and railways. I again thank my colleagues. From tomorrow, it's work."
"We have restored sanity to Israel," Lapid said. "We have bridged the gaps to reach the goal. We backed each other and we had each other's backs, we put ego aside. We laid foundations for an economy based on technology and for what the government will deal with in the near future."
At the question stage, Bennett was asked about the scheduled rotation of the premiership between him and Lapid, and about the discretionary budget allocations to the coalition partners. "We shall carry out the rotation, and the government will complete its term," the prime minister responded.
Lapid added, "I'm with people whom I believe. Coalition allocations are something I don’t like, but I had to decide whether to let it pass. I took care that the process should be transparent."
"All the money that members of Knesset requested will go into the budget base. There won’t be money left that they request and distribute themselves. It goes into the budget base, and then the ministry administers it. We didn’t manage to eliminate it, but we reduced it to a minimum, and next time we'll reduce it completely," Liberman said.
Asked about Israeli captives and whether terrorists with blood on their hands would be released in a prisoner exchange, Bennett said, "I shan't comment. My views are known, and we shall conduct matters responsibly in order to provide a solution for civilians and soldiers in the hands of Hamas."
Another questioned concerned whether Bennett would support the bill proposed by Minister of Justice Gideon Sa'ar to prohibit anyone accused of a criminal offence from serving as prime minister, and a committee of enquiry into Israel's purchase of submarines from Germany. He was also asked about reports that the US had requested to reopen a consulate in East Jerusalem. "My position is that there is no room for a consulate to serve the Palestinians in Jerusalem," Bennett replied. "Jerusalem is the capital of Israel alone. All the rest of the subjects are controversial matters, and we said that we would attend to them after the budget. We shall put our minds to them and make decisions and inform everyone," he said.
"We oppose a consulate for Palestinians in Jerusalem," Lapid added.
Published by Globes, Israel business news - en.globes.co.il - on November 7, 2021.
© Copyright of Globes Publisher Itonut (1983) Ltd., 2021.