MK Arial Attias (Shas) announced, after much speculation that he might be soon resigning from politics and leaving the Knesset, that he is not resigning (for now) but will be taking a break from the Knesset.

I dont know what it means to "take a break" from the Knesset... Shas has 11 MKs in the Knesset - do they now only have 10 in practice? If he would resign, someone lower down would move up and fill the empty seat - by taking a break is he preventing that from happening? I dont know. I think "taking a break" is not really fair for Shas, if he wont be around to support their work and efforts (votes) but won't allow someone else to replace him..

I think it is a shame. I though Attias was a good and effective minister. He worked, he concentrated on his ministry rather than constantly getting involved in other issues, and he got things done. It is a shame that Israeli politics will be losing Arial Attias.

I don't know, objectively speaking, if Ariel Attias did a good job as Housing Minister.

I like Attias because I saw him working and getting projects off the ground, in a ministry that has been stagnant for a long enough time. Objectively, I have no idea if the work he did, the decisions made, the reforms introduced, were good or not for the country and the housing market.

I know he got a lot of housing projects around the country off the ground. I know that a majority of those have been for his own sector, for haredi housing. However, the haredi market had probably the most serious shortage of [affordable] housing of any sector, so at least Attias made a big dent in that problem, even if the accusation of him working only for his own sector is true.

Interestingly, and unfortunately it comes with no explanation, Globes is reporting on a survey taken of kablanim regarding whom they would prefer to be Minister of Housing in the next government. The results are a bit surprising because Ariel Attias came out with a very poor showing, garnering only 15% of the kablanim behind him as next Housing Minister.

Unfortunately, there was no explanation as to why he had so little support among kablanim. I mean, if Attias really did increase the amount of housing projects and thereby gave a lot of business to a lot of kablanim, I would have thought the kablanim would love Arial Attias as Housing Minister. but they don't.

Just as surprising as the lack of support for Ariel Attias is the overwhelming support for Silvan Shalom as next Minister of Housing, with 54% of kablanim pointing to him as the preferred minister. The level of support for Shalom is surprising, not because Shalom is not a good guy or a good minister, but because he has never filled this specific position in the past and how do th ekablanim know what he would do in this ministerial position?!

Some, Shas supporters, are pointing to Ariel Attias and saying he did a good job in the Ministry of Communications, and then the Likud sent in Moshe Kachlon after him and he reaped the benefits, and extended them, of the reforms begun by Attias. And, they say regarding the current spat over who will control the Housing Ministry in the next government, the same will happen in this ministry - Attias has done a good job of implementing reforms and increasing the amount of new projects, while the Likud will then come in and reap the benefits in the next government.

Likud people, on the other hand, are saying that Attias worked very sectoraly, building only for his own sector, not even doing a very good job of it, and like in the Communications Ministry they will now have to send in a Likud minister to take it over and clean up Attias's mess.

I don't know which perspective is objectively correct.

After the elections, Yisrael Beyteynu will take the Ministry of Housing and the Ministry of the Interior, and will solve the housing problems.... We will send Attias to the Ministry of Tourism, as anyway he is constantly traveling...

  -- Avigdor Lieberman, to Russian-Israeli press

I find the heated tones on both sides of this argument to be silly - everybody knows that few election statements are serious, but are mostly for posturing. Especially in a parliamentary government system, after the elections everything is up for haggling and everything is on the table.

Maybe Likud will be willing to give it up to get something else, or maybe Shas will be offered something more attractive and will give it up. Maybe Shas will come out of the elections very powerful and Likud wont be able to refuse their demand, or maybe they will come out weak and won't be able to make such a demand..

Turning these statements into a point of friction between the parties is completely unnecessary and is even a distraction. They are dividing up the spoils before the war has been won.

In a rally in Elad, Housing Minister Ariel Attias commented on the idea floated by Bayit Yehudi that they might demand the Ministry of Housing portfolio in a future government, to get it out of the hands of SHAS who were only concerned with building for their own sector.

Attias's response is that Bayit Yehudi is a sectoral party, while they helped everyone who is a "have-not", they strengthened the weak. He says we are not sectoral, but the entire nation is our sector, and they only want their little sector to control it..

I happen to like Ariel Attias and think he did good work in a ministry that was stagnant for a long time, but it is disingenuous of him to make the claim that SHAS is not a sectoral party.

Forget about Aryeh Deri - the real winner, in my opinion, of the new arrangement in SHAS, with their 3-headed leadership, is Ariel Attias.

As part of the new arrangement, Attias joins the party leadership, whereas without this new arrangement he would still have only been the #2 man behind Eli Yishai. Attias was a hard-working minister who did his job well.

As they say, a camel is a horse designed by a committee. Having a 3-headed leadership team could be a disaster for SHAS, with each pulling in a different direction. Or it could mean more power for Aryeh Deri, as Ariel Attias is seemingly identified with Deri's camp and if he supports Deri as a standard in this new body, Yishai will regularly be outvoted... I expect with this new position Attias will be more independent and will step up to take the leadership position for the future.


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Knesset: Ketzaleh Talks About Increasing Construction, and Finishing Projects

The Knesset, as entertaining as ever, has MK Yaakov Katz criticizing Housing Minister for starting a lot of construction but not actually finishing any of it in over 3 years. He uses himself as an example for having built thousands of homes privately, and 120,000 with Arial Sharon, in less than 2 years... Attias seems to take the criticism in good humor...


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When the Disengagement passed, Shas and UTJ took a lot of heat from the more nationalisticly inclined people, as if they should have supported the fight led by the Dati Leumi leadership and other right wing Zionist groups.

They should have supported the anti-Disengagement group more, I am not denying that. However, it the attacks were coming from a political discussion, of not coming to "our" side, not adopting "our" position, as if they had no right to decide on their own what their relationship is with Eretz Yisrael and with the State of Israel. I disagreed with their decision, but I did not like the way they were attacked, both in the way it was made to appear that they were solely to blame for the entire affair as well as if they have no right to make their own decisions.

After Shas and UTJ came out disappointing much of the right wing public again with their [mostly] lack of support for the Ulpana bill after having been threatened by Netanyahu, again the talk is beginning that they are at fault, they weren't there to support us, etc.

I don't want to debate whether the bill was good or bad. I don't know, I dont have a definitive opinion on the matter. On the one hand, 5 homes of 30 families or so is being traded for 300 homes in Beit El and I think 850 overall. So maybe it is not so bad. On the other hand, it's never good to throw people out of their homes, especially when they went there with government support. And if Netanyahu has this ability (from a legal and a diplomatic perspective) to build all this new housing in the settlements, why hasn't he done so until now, or why can't he do so with absolutely no connection to cutting down and moving these other existing homes?

So any party can decide for themselves based on their platform and their members beliefs whether that bill fit their worldview or not.

However, I do find it to be the ultimate chuitzpah for people on the right wing, generally in the National Zionist camp but also others, to demand the haredi parties support their position on this and other land of Israel issues, when for the past 6 months or 2 years (or some would say 64 years) the haredi parties positions have been under attack (sometimes rightfully sometimes wrongfully) and none (that's hyperbole, so maybe let's say "very few") of the Dati Leumi stood by the side of the Haredim in their time of need. Just like in those instances they found it unnecessary to stand by the side of the Haredim but rather to act upon their worldview or upon taking advantage of the current political currents of the time, so now the haredim should be able to make their own decisions on issues like this and not automatically be expected to come to anybody's side.

That being said, it is not helpful when people like Minister of Housing Ariel Attias say things like he said this morning when he blamed Netanyahu for these decisions and deflected blame from Barak and anybody else. Sure, he and his party were under pressure of being fired, so they had to vote against the bill (or abstain), but at least don't throw around blame afterwards. just lay low. As much as Netanyahu is to blame, those who did not oppose it are also to blame. We do not live in a dictatorship. Maybe if enough MKs and Ministers  opposed him instead of caving, perhaps he would not have been able to fire them all. You chose to change your position at the last minute, for whatever reason, so you are to blame as much as anybody else.




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It is fairly natural for people to trust "one of their own" more than people from other communities. A haredi fellow will generally trust the integrity of another haredi fellow more than he would that of people from other communities. A dati fellow would trust another dati more than others. A person from a specific strain of a community (maybe from a certain yeshiva or from a certain side of town, or whatever) will trust someone else from that particular strain over others. It is natural - he seems more like me, he comes from a similar background, etc. If he and someone else is trying to sell me something, I would trust the one I have some connection to quicker than I would trust someone totally unconnected.

Such advanced trust is natural, yet we have seen numerous times that people have been burned by such trust. Whether it is someone selling investment services, or selling apartments, or insurance, or whatever. The news has stories regularly of frauds who burned dozens or hundreds or thousands of people when they took advantage of that increased trust.

Arial Attias, Minister of Housing, related to a number of incidents of fraud in the haredi community where someone was selling apartments and ended up not giving bank guarantees or whatnot and then walked away with the money. Attias said that when you are buying a house, trust nobody. It does not matter if the representative of the kablan is secular or haredi, do your own due diligence and don't trust him. No matter who the guy is, ask for the bank guarantee, ask for the security, ask for the necessary background so you know from whom you are buying, and don't just trust him because he looks a certain way. (source: Kikar)

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Quote Of The Day

We fought on behalf of the young couples. What was always before us was that  the widest majority possible in Israel should benefit. I represent the SHAS party and that is a party that represents all parts of society and just a particular sector. SHAS is the only one that is concerned for the weaker sectors and is willing to pay the price for it... Only people who do not understand math say things like that (RG: that he is setting criteria that is beneficial specifically for the haredi community) - who accumulates years of marriage with no children, is it the haredim? Do haredim accumulate years of marriage and stop at two children?

  -- Minister of Housing Arial Attias

Quote Of The Day

Housing Minister Attias explained today that the housing crisis is "because of previous governments". Since 1984 SHAS has been a part of every government coalition, except for one (that lasted only 2 years). So perhaps he can detail which of the other ministers from SHAS are responsible for the crisis in his opinion..

  -- Yair Lapid

I, once again, have to give a lot of credit to Minister of Housing Arial Attias (Shas). If there is one guy in the government who is actually focused and concentrating on his ministry and doing the work he is meant to be doing, it is Arial Attias.

He has completely turned the housing industry around. He has moved it from stagnation to a vibrant office, pushing projects all around the country. This is all despite the construction problems brought about by the political process. Attias ignores the fact that in a large percentage of the country he cannot build right now, and instead pushes major projects in the parts where he can build. He is thinking big, he is creating big projects, and he is getting the job done.

Today up for final approval is a project down south near Arad called Kasif, which is meant to be a Haredi city of 10,000 housing units, estimated for 50,000 people. In addition, Harish-Katzir up north is moving along in the planning stages, along with thousands of other units around the country in places like Lod, Bet Shemesh, Tiberias, Nazereth Ilit, and other places.

Arial Attias is working hard, focused on running his ministry and I am very impressed with him.

Housing Minister Ariel Attias is in a fight with the Finance Ministry over money. Attias wants the Finance Ministry to release some of its surplus money to the Lands Registry.

Attias blames the FM for being greedy. Attias said, "The Lands registry has a budget surplus of 1.5 billion shekels. there is no problem of money, but the Finance Ministry sees the land as a source of income".

Without getting involved in who deserves that money (I have no idea and no opinion on the matter), I just want to comment that I think the Finance Ministry is correct in such an approach, if that is their approach. Why should they see the land as anything but a strategic asset or as a source of income? Why should the land be given away for free, just because Attias wants to help some people, when it can be sold and bring millions of shekels to the State?

Giving the land away to lower income families might be something they decide to do as a form of welfare and State assistance, but that does not mean it should not be looked at as a source of income. Without any other issues, such as helping the needy, the State should not look at the land as anything but a source of income (referring only to land intended for building)

Most citizens have an apartment they are meant to live in. This is the roof over their head and they are not meant to check its value every month in the market. They are not moving apartments for no reason, their kids are in schools, they work nearby, etc. Opposite them you have those who wish to enter the apartment market but cannot. So must I be concerned for those who are investing and buying their second and third apartments? Why? Do they share their money with others who don't have apartments?

---- Housing Minister Ariel Attias

I am no big fan of Shas, though I think they have vastly improved their image the past 2 years with some good work in the government. One good point in Shas, if I had to point to only one, though I am sure you can find more, is Ariel Attias.

I have said it before as well. Ariel Attias is a bright spot in Shas. he is great - a productive minister, a formidable force. I said so when he was Minister of Communication in Ehud Olmert's government. The guy gets to work, and he works hard. he might be th hardest working minister in the government.

I don't have a specific opinion on the various reforms he implements or the policies he brings to his ministry. I don't always understand the benefits or problems or what he is trying to do, so I can't say I always think what he does is right. but that is beside the point. Attias works hard and he puts things into motion like nobody else.

In the Communications Ministry he worked hard and brought all sorts of reforms to the office, in the realm of internet, mobile phones, competition, etc. In the Housing Ministry he has been working hard and bringing changes, working on releasing land for construction all over the country, etc.

We hear a lot from a lot of ministers in the government about all sorts of issues - usually regarding the peace process, Palestinians, terror, Jerusalem, etc. Usually things not connected to their respective offices. With Attias, you will rarely hear him talk about anything not related to his ministry. He is focused and he works hard to get the job done.

I applaud Ariel Attias and congratulate him on being chosen as The Marker's Man of the Year in the real estate market. if anybody works hard enough to deserve this, it is Ariel Attias.