Today is a fateful day for the government of Israel. At 18:30, a meeting is scheduled between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Minister of Finance Moshe Kahlon. The meeting takes place against the background of the coalition crisis sparked by the resignation of Avigdor Liberman, leader of the Yisrael Beiteinu party, as minister of defense, pulling his party out of the coalition, and the demand of Habayit Hayehudi leader Naftali Bennett to be given the newly vacant defense portfolio.
Yesterday evening, Netanyahu claimed that Kahlon was the one about to topple a right-wing government through his opposition to Bennett becoming defense minister and his wish for early elections.
For his part, Kahlon made clear that he had no objection to giving Bennett the defense portfolio but that he believed that an election should now be called because the coalition was supported by only 61 out of 120 members of Knesset, putting the state budget at risk. "Something has happened," Kahlon said, "The minister of defense bailed out, there's no room for spin. We are in danger of fiscal anarchy. I'm a graduate of Netanyahu's spins. Let them stop threatening. Threats are good for Likud members. I'm their partner, not their employee. I won't abandon the economy or Israel's citizens for two or three more months in government."
Kahlon said he thought that the election, which is due to take place in November, would be brought forward to late March.
Before Netanyahu's meeting with Kahlon, the government will discuss the proposal to implement the agreement between Kahlon and Minister of Public Security Gilad Erdan on a pay rise for the police, the prison service, and security forces pensioners costing a total of NIS 22 billion between 2019 and 2035.
The proposal includes a 1.3% across the board cut in the budgets of all ministries to finance the pay rise, and also to finance the Eurovision Song Contest, due to be held in Israel next year, and other additional expenses.
The cut will be raised to 1.5% annually from 2020 onwards.
The government is also due to ratify the appointment of Prof. Amir Yaron as the next governor of the Bank of Israel. Yaron has asked to be able to continue as an unpaid member of three research institutes.
Published by Globes, Israel business news - en.globes.co.il - on November 18, 2018
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