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Jerusalem - Finance Minister: No Deal Made with Charedi Parties on Yeshiva Stipends

Published on: November 8, 2010 03:18 PM

News Source: JPost

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Ultra Orthodox Jewish men study Torah by using a laptop at Yeshiva Belz in Jerusalem on Nov 05, 2010 .photo by Abir Sultan/Flash 90

Jerusalem - Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz came to the Knesset Monday to officially present the 2011-2012 biennial budget to the Finance Committee, but rather than concentrating on Steinitz’s plans to reduce unemployment and encourage fiscal growth, opposition MKs came ready for a fight following contradicting reports that Steinitz had made a backroom agreement to advance the bill for yeshiva students’ living stipends.

Steinitz addressed the issues of the yeshiva students’ stipends and of concenssions paid by companies exploiting Israel’s national resources at the beginning of his briefing. Steinitz denied assertions made earlier in the morning by Interior Minister Eli Yishai that there was an agreement between the haredi parties, but said that he would not support any arrangement that is not in line with the parameters of the Supreme Court.

Throughout Steinitz’s briefing to the committee, Kadima Mks continued to press him on the issue of the alleged deal, quoting back to the finance minister statements made by Yishai during an Army Radio interview earlier in the morning.

“Who are we supposed to believe?” asked MK Yochanan Plesner (Kadima). “Should we believe what you said now in the committee, denying the existence of an agreement between Shas and the Treasury on the bill or should we believe what Yishai said this morning on the radio, when he confirmed the existence of the agreement?”

“There is practically no serious person in the country who believes that there is going to be a real debate in the committee established by Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu,” continued Plesner. “Now, it is clear that everything was determined in advance. I demand that you immediately reveal all of the other political agreements that you made in order to enable the passage of this anti-social budget.”

At the beginning of his address, Steinitz also reported that the Shishinsky Commission to examine the issue of natural gas concessions will deliver its conclusions next week. He said that estimates have valued the natural gas resources at tens of millions of dollars, and that it could have an “impact on the entire Zionist effort.”

“Israel’s citizens are entitled to benefit from the country’s national resources just as citizens of western nations benefit from their countries’ resources,” said Steinitz.

Steinitz plugged his budget as heralding a change in government priorities, including reining in the massive defense budget and a “significant increase in the budget for education and higher education.” He outlined four major goals within the budget as stregnthening hi-tech as the engine for growth, increasing investment in all levels of education, improving periphery infrastructures and integrating haredi men and women into the work force.

Finance Ministry Dir.-Gen. Haim Shani and Budget Division Head Udi Nissan told Mks that the decline in the national product witnessed in 2008-2009 was lower than that of most other countries, and, according to Shani, even in 2009, the worst year of the recession, the Israeli economy continued to grow.

But opposition Mks were anything but satisfied with the Treasury’s report. MK Haim Oron (Meretz) complained that the presentations failed to demonstrate even one area of improvement in social measures. The improvements in education, said Oron, would not help close the growing gaps between rich and poor. “This budget does not allow for the continued existence of the welfare state,” he protested.

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