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Two papers comment on the strike by municipal workers, in the wake of Interior Minister Eli Yishai’s decision to accept recommendations by the Kehat Commission and provide various discounts and exemptions on municipal taxes, further reducing local authorities’ revenues from property tax:
The Jerusalem Post comments: "Not surprisingly, local authorities’ garbage collectors, preschool teachers’ assistants, traffic police and other employees have called a strike rightly fearing that Yishai’s generosity will come at the expense of their monthly paycheck. It is perfectly honorable for Yishai to want to help students, reserve soldiers, the handicapped and families with children under the age of five. But the state, not embattled local governments, should pay the price."
Haaretz writes: "The inherently unacceptable means through which the local governments chose to express their distress does not detract from the authenticity of that distress. As is his populist wont, Interior Minister Eli Yishai elected to extend discounts on municipal property tax to entire population groups, including, of course, more than a few of his ultra-Orthodox voters. It’s easy for Yishai to be generous, since he isn’t the one who pays the price of that generosity. The price is paid by the local authorities, which have been left without sufficient sources of revenue. It is no accident that Yishai champions the erosion both of local government revenue and of an equal sharing of the tax burden. A draft law on the municipalities that the interior and justice ministries had labored over since 2000 is now sitting on his desk collecting dust. It’s convenient for Yishai to continue his takeover of local government instead of bringing it into the modern era. The battle that the local authorities are waging with the ministry to get the Municipalities Law approved is of paramount importance. But an open-ended strike, at the expense of society’s neediest members, is not the way to win it."
Yediot Aharonot contends that the Saudi hacker responsible for perpetrating several cyber attacks on Israeli websites "can do us good." The author explains that "Paradoxically, infiltration into the sites caused an alarm to go off. Now all credit card holders will have to be vigilant and check every expenditure."
Ma’ariv rhetorically asks why members of the ultra-Orthodox community do not serve in the IDF. The author replies that "The Prime Minister does not want to govern, because the Defense Minister’s only interest is in military operations and because the public enjoys hating them. If Netanyahu wanted to be Prime Minister, and not only to hold the title, he would construct the only model which has a chance: Universal conscription."
Yisrael Hayom notes that "Knesset Member Anastasia Michaeli left us all dumbstruck last week when she threw water at Knesset Member Raleb Majadele. Even from her, such an act was unexpected." The author reminds his readers that "Israeli Arabs will not turn into members of the Zionist movement, nor its supporters or fans. But they live here by right and not by sufferance."
[Gad Lior, Ofer Shelah and Uzi Baram wrote today’s articles in Yediot Aharonot, Ma’ariv and Yisrael Hayom, respectively.]