Two papers discuss Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu\’s and Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz\’s decision to restore planned budget cuts at ministries controlled by Shas and Defense Minister Ehud Barak\’s Atzmaut party:
Yediot Aharonot remarks that "Citizens have no lobbyists. They cannot pound on the Prime Minister\’s door or threaten the Finance Minister that next week they will vote against the budget decrees if they do not cancel the collection of the additional 1% on their income tax or the hike in VAT. Only ministers have the possibility of \’threatening\’ the Prime Minister and the Finance Minister and that is exactly what they did: They threatened that their Knesset factions would torpedo the plan of cuts and taxes." The author reminds his readers: "For example, the ministers will travel in their Government BMWs and not pay the increase in gasoline prices, or the hike in VAT on gasoline next month," and adds: "The ministers are not dependent on affordable housing and will not suffer very much from the increase in the cost-of-living since almost all of their expenses are financed by the taxpayers." "Tru! e," the paper says, "\’Ordinary\’ Israelis can go out and demonstrate, but it is becoming clear that last summer\’s protests did not help very much," and adds that "Now, the cost-of-living will only go up."
Ma\’ariv reminds its readers, "On Monday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared that \’There are no free lunches\’ just before the Cabinet approved the plan of decrees. Even before the ministers could get used to the idea that they would be obliged to absorb a NIS 700 million cut, the miracle happened and Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz reopened the soup kitchen. Steinitz is feeding the unruly ministers whose Knesset votes are needed to approve the cuts. Indeed, there are free lunches, the question is just for whom." Not surprisingly, we are talking about Shas ministers Eli Yishai and Ariel Atias, and Atzmaut ministers Ehud Barak and Shalom Simhon. Welfare Minister Moshe Kahlon from the Likud, who voted against, does not count at this stage." The author asserts: "It is not clear where the missing money will come from," and adds: "A similar dilemma is where the Finance Ministry will find the NIS 320 million that lacking du! e to the postponement in raising VAT." The paper believes that "This hurts the credibility of Finance Ministry statements and creates the impression that this is all political horse-trading," and refers to Bank of Israel Governor Stanley Fischer\’s warning that the Finance Ministry may have to yet propose even deeper budget cuts.
Yisrael Hayom comments on the state of US-Israel defense relations in the wake of Republican candidate Mitt Romney\’s and Defense Secretary Leon Panetta\’s visits to Israel and suggests that "The Obama administration is working to keep Israel very satisfied in order to compete against Republican rival Mitt Romney\’s sharp criticism of the President." The author notes that while President Obama cannot match Romney\’s statements on Jerusalem, "he does have the national checkbook and added NIS 70 million for Iron Dome so that Ehud Barak might declare that bilateral security ties have never been better." The paper declares that "There is something to Netanyahu\’s contention that the sanctions have yet to slow the Iranian nuclear initiative," and says that Panetta did not ask for what the Government cannot give, namely a commitment not to attack Iran before the November elections.
The Jerusalem Post ponders the lack of Israeli response – official or otherwise – to the slandering remarks of MK Haneen Zoabi (Balad), who, among other provocations, blamed Israel for the recent slaying of Israeli tourists in Bulgaria, and surmises that her remarks failed to rouse furor among the Israeli public because “it has grown inured to brazen provocation from Arab MKs bankrolled by Israeli taxpayers.” The editor asserts that while “Zoabi feigns innocence as a promoter of democracy,” the subtext of her argument is that there are no limits to what may be done to any Israeli, (and by extension Jews), because they bring it on themselves. The editor states that “Zoabi may again feign innocence and claim that this is not quite what she said, but this is where her logic inescapably leads,” and adds: “We are not necessarily calling for punitive moves against her sedition and incitement. We are just wondering about the worri! some absence of outrage and revulsion, especially from Israel’s Arab sector.”
Haaretz notes that “The Green Line has turned into a dividing line between two states: a state of budget cuts in sovereign Israeli territory and a welfare state in the land of the settlers.”
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[Gad Lior, Yehuda Sharoni and Dan Margalit wrote today’s articles in Yediot Aharonot, Ma\’ariv and Yisrael Hayom, respectively.]