-- MK Avigdor Lieberman (Yisrael Beyteynu)

Netanyahu said in response to a journalist asking a question about Likud MK Tali Gotliv spouting crazy conspiracy theories that "Again, while I am fighting Hamas, you are fighting against me" and refused to answer the actual question. The journalist himself is one who had spent over 100 days in miluim fighting in Gaza and had just recently been released. 

I normally avoid quoting Lieberman (and Lapid) because of hateful things he (they) have said in the past, but recently Avigdor Lieberman has been very right and logical about so many things...

According to Ynet, Minister of Finance Betzalel Smotritch has decided to "unfreeze", or renew, bring back, the tax on sweetened drinks. Smotritch will do it slightly differently than before, as it was introduced under Lieberman's instruction - it will only be on sugary drinks and will not include diet drinks like Coke Zero, and it will also not be applied to sweet drinks such as grape juice that is used for religious ceremonies (ie kiddush on shabbos and holidays).

In my opinion diet drinks should be included as the sweeteners and chemicals used to make it drinkable in place of the sugar are probably equally or more dangerous from a health perspective (from what I have read, may not be accurate). 

Why was I surprised? Because they made such a big deal about canceling the tax on drinks that Leiberman had imposed, turning it into an anti-haredi tax, as if only Haredim would be affected by it because only Haredim drink sweet drinks. Clearly not true but that is what it was turned into, and the Haredi parties made this a central part of their campaign before the last elections and added it to coalition agreements. So now Smotritch is bringing it back? Wow. 

I suspected initially this might be revenge, somewhat, for Minister of Interior Moshe Arbel's insistence on holding municipal elections on January 30, against the requests of Smotritch due to the negative impact it will have on National Zionist candidates (among others) with a high percentage of candidates and staff fighting in Gaza or drafted to other areas for reserve duty.

Another option that crossed my mind was simply the need for money due to the adjusted budget for the war and the expected significant shortfall.

Now I see, according to Kikar, this was actually done in coordination with the Haredi parties.

According to the article, the Haredi parties were ok with adding the tax on the drinks as long as it wouldnt include grape juice and diet drinks, and that it would include an informational/educational campaign targeting the Haredi community to explain the damage caused by the sugary drinks.

I am not sure why the educational campaign needs to only target the Haredi community, but that seems to be the agreement. Plenty of people who have access to information on their own, such as via the internet, do not bother looking for it. I think everyone would benefit from an educational campaign about this, just like they always did from campaigns regarding smoking, drugs, alcohol and the like.

It is noted that if the talks with the Haredi representatives do not pan out and they decide to oppose the tax, Smotritch will have to reconsider because of the coalition agreements. As of now they are justifying this by saying they initially had to get rid of Lieberman's anti-haredi tax but now that this was accomplished done they can talk about finding a way to get the community to consume less sugary drinks.

So the same tax is back, with some adjustments (which probably could have been accomplished back then too had they been willing to talk) but now it is not anti-haredi.

Whatever gets you through the day, as they say.

  -- MK Avigdor Lieberman

funny, though it is bad timing with the bombshell of the Deri decision. Who is listening to anybody talk about anything else right now?

So that was a different kind of tax. I dont consider something like that "raising taxes". It was on something specific for a specific purpose - to dissuade people from buying those items.

In general Lieberman has lowered taxes. He lowered the tax on gasoline, along with lowering taxes over the past year on a variety of imported goods. The purpose of these is to fight inflation, to open the market to more competition by cheaper imports, which will improve quality and lower prices. I still think corporate and personal taxes should be lowered, along with taxes on automobiles and many other items, but what Lieberman has done, in this regard, has been a good start.

Funnily enough, this post so far sounds like it is a post supporting Avigdor Lieberman, but it is not meant to be. I have never voted for Avigdor Lieberman and do not intend to. I think he could have opposed the Haredi parties without being as nasty as he has been, and in general he is not my cup of tea, though the truth is that if he is the only one lowering taxes perhaps that should be reconsidered.

Shas, on the other hand, is a party that claims to be concerned about social matters, caring for the weak and poor of Israeli society. One example of that is their plan to distribute food vouchers to poor families. That will cost Israeli society some good money but it isnt a bad program and a society, capitalist as it might be, should have some social concerns as well for the weaker sector. Their concern for the weaker sectors never seems to translate into lowering taxes but to increasing handouts. I guess that makes sense, as if you lower taxes there wont be, or there will be less, money for the handouts. 

Shas though has also opposed many reforms that were meant to help the people. I am not referring to reforms that involved religious issues, such as those of Matan Kahane - it is understandable that they opposed those. They have opposed many reforms that were meant to help the people financially, such as in the agriculture field (pun intended), such as the quotas of egg production, such as increasing allowance of imports of vegetables, such as lowering taxes on various imports especially in the agriculture imports. They oppose these reforms under the guise of protecting the farmers, protecting the chicken coop and egg people, etc. They oppose these reforms protecting some farmers at the expense of millions of Israelis. When I put it like that I just realized some juxtaposition with the hetter mechira which was meant to protect the farmers, but Shas (and others) oppose hetter mechira to help the local farmers, and many of those who support hetter mechira to help the farmers might support the reforms which would hurt the local farmers. Interesting point to think about.

The latest is Avigdor Lieberman, Minister of Finance, just announced the cutting of taxes on imports of fish before the holidays. This should cause the price of fish to drop just at a point where so many people are buying so much fish. That sounds like a good reform, a good plan, a helpful plan.

MK Yaakov Margi (Shas) on the other hand is opposing the reform. Margi claims that canceling the taxes on the fish imports will only help the monopolies get eve richer - he says prices will not be lowered but the monopolies will keep the extra money for themselves keeping the prices high and pocketing the difference.

That is a perfect example. The monopolies on fish are held by the local growers. The purpose of cutting the taxes on the imports is to force the local fish farmers to lower their prices to stay competitive. Increasing imports does not help the monopolies, it hurts them. He seems to imply that there is only one fish importer in Israel and this will help that monopoly, but if taxes are cut and it becomes profitable to import fish, others will join that market as well.

If Shas wants to help fight inflation and the increasing cost of living, they would not just give out handouts but would also work to lower prices.

Like him or not, nothing he does is comparable to tactics used in the Holocaust in propaganda to help in the rounding up Jews and murdering them, nor similar to the way Stalin murder millions of Russians when he took power.

Stop comparing people you don't like to the Nazis. Stop invoking the Holocaust every time you don't like something or someone. Just stop.

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Liberman said he is going to pursue passage of a law that would prevent the Opposition from bringing about the collapse of the government unless they can garner the support of 90 MKs during the first two years of the coalition's term. The other, less crazy even if debatable, parts of his proposal are that there would be term limits on the Prime Minister (two terms), and someone indicted for a crime cannot run for Prime Minister or President.

90 MKs to bring down a government? The government cannot be brought down within the first two years of serving (unless 90 MKs vote against it)??

This is almost anti-democratic. This is a parliamentary system, not a presidential system. I am all in favor of electoral reform and think we desperately need it along with reform in how the government functions, but we should not be reforming the system with individual changes that a few people (or one person) think will be better for them. If you are going to reform the system, go ahead and reform it entirely and properly.

And Liberman should be aware that even if he thinks such a law would help him now, it could turn around and bite him later. At the end of the day, a large part of the problems with the electoral and governmental systems is that they never really incorporated long term thinking and planning. Everyone just makes changes that they think will help them.

and there is always a but. Often a big but. An exception of one kind or another.

Lieberman said he would support the formation of a government with any and all Zionist parties, from Meretz to Yamina, except not with the Tzionut Hadatit party and not with Shas or UTJ. Lieberman said Tzionut Hadatit is an anti- Zionist party because their agenda is to turn Israel into a halachic state. Shas and UTJ he didnt give an explanation for but just stressed that there is no way he would sit with them - he has said before the Haredi activists are unacceptable (and he has said worse, much worse, about them too).

It would seem "Zionist" is not really the issue. Tzionut Hadatit represents communities that send their young men and women to the army, and to the elite units of the army, and serve the State in many ways, and are the most active and aggressive in settling the land, especially in Judea and Samaria. Shas and UTJ have, through their proxies, joined WZO, so they can also be considered Zionist parties, no matter how loudly they may deny it (UTJ, that is, not Shas). 

And, where does Raam fit into this? He just sat with them but they arent a Zionist party. Are they within the range of "from Meretz to Yamina" or are they out of that range but still ok?

I am not sure "Zionist party' is actually his criteria, so I dont know why he keeps using it.

According to the report, Lieberman's plan would make the general education system run on a schedule more similar to the Haredi school system. That is, Lieberman's plan would have schools running as normal through July, going on vacation in August.  Working parents would no longer struggle to find solutions for their kids for the two month period, as vacation would only be August, part of which most parents take vacation anyway before the new school year starts. July school would have the teachers losing 21 days of vacation.

Then in the period of September - October, with all the holidays, there would be vacation for the holiday period with an addition of two weeks vacation either before or after the holidays, depending on the calendar. September-October holidays would give the teachers back 17 of the vacation days they lost in July. The teachers would then have a selection of 4 more vacation days that they can each choose to use whenever they want. 

Being that the teachers are not losing any vacation days, they are just being moved around differently, I am not sure what the extra pay is for. It seems to be a bribe to get them to agree to the plan, not compensation for working more. But then again, teachers deserve to earn more than they do anyway...

It seems though that they did not try to solve the Chanukah sechedule at the same time, and I dont get why. Chanukah always has the kids getting off of school (plus Lag B'Omer) for no particularly good reason, while the parents have to work. Some parents take vacation then, and some travel, but in general, once coordinating the schedules, this should have been taken into consideration as well. 

Lieberman announced today that he will lower the tax by 50ag per liter. This will knock the price of gasoline back down below the 7nis mark.

The tax on petrol has been 3.13nis per liter, and will now stand at 2.63nis per liter. This is the first time since 2012 that the petrol tax is being lowered.

The decrease in the tax will go into effect immediately (assuming it is approved by the relevant Knesset committee) and will be in place for 3 months after which it will be reevaluated.  Lieberman said that this government, with him as Finance Minister, will not be hiding money under the floor tiles, but if money can be given back to the people it will be - and if possible they will lower it some more next month.

I dont know if 50ag per liter is enough, as even at the discounted price it is still higher than what was recently normal, but at least it is a start...

 

I am not even sure what that means - in what way are they responsible for the high cost of living? I think he meant because they participate in the workforce at lower percentages than general society. presumably, if the Haredi community would participate equally like everyone else, the government would be able to lower taxes as the tax base of people paying in would be greater.

I think that is bunk. The government is not going to lower taxes because some more people are paying in. I dont know who he thinks he is fooling. The high tax on gas is not because fewer Haredim are working. The high tax on sugary drinks is not because fewer Haredim are working. The level of arnona and income tax and VAT and all the various business taxes for people who own businesses, and all the other taxes are not coming down if more people start working. The graph of cars being purchased in Israel does nothing but go up yet the tax on gas or on cars has not gone down even a bit let alone commensurately.

Besides for taxes and the workforce, the Haredim are experts in cheap purchasing. They buy in bulk, they use community forces and group purchasing power to attain lower costs. Besides for homes, they often do not even purchase higher priced items. 

Haredim suffer from cost of living increase as much as anyone else, but the cost of living has always been high in Israel and it isnt the fault of any one specific group (other than maybe government people).

The headlines are already screaming about Lieberman calling on the public to break the law.

The law is that the Rabbanut has a monopoly on the word kosher and no restaurant can use the word kosher without obtaining the permission of the Rabbanut. Essentially, Lieberman is telling restaurant owners to ignore that law and declare themselves as kosher without involving the Rabbanut. 

Perhaps Lieberman finds it unnecessary due to the coming reforms rendering it superfluous but if he wants restaurant owners to do this he should first change the law to take away authority over this word from the Rabbanut. Give kosher back to the public before encouraging them to use it!

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(Tweet is from the Yisrael Beyteynu political party (headed by minister Avigdor Lieberman) official Twitter account)

the incitement of the Haredi activists has crossed all the lines of legitimate criticism. It is unbelievable that a newspapers gives a platform for such statements in Israel! A shonda!

The tweet attaches an op-ed form the Hamodia newspaper in which the author compares Avigdor Lieberman to Joseph Goebbels.

To be fair, like all, or at least almost all Holocaust comparisons, comparing Lieberman to Goebbels is despicable and demeaning to Holocaust survivors and to the memory of the Holocaust.

On the other hand, it is ironic to see Avigdor Lieberman complaining about Haredi incitement considering the level of incitement he has been involved in against the Haredi community for the past two years....tot

The new tax includes drinks beyond a certain amount of sugar, even if no sugar is added and it is natural fruit sugar (fructose?).

Hamechadesh points out that everyone who makes kiddush will be affected by this tax and grape juice is not being granted an exception as a basic necessity (necessity in the sense of being a high percentage of Jews in the State of Israel making kiddush on Friday nights and Shabbos morning).

A cynic would say that the entire tax was designed by Minister of Finance Avigdor Lieberman entirely around this to hurt the religious and the religious act of kiddush. More likely it is like an innocent pedestrian getting killed in a drive by shooting - unintended consequence. Probably a tiny amount of lobbying will get an exception granted.

The last possibility is that Lieberman wants to push us to drink less grape juice and more wine. I think wine is even more mehudar than grape juice from the mitzva perspective, so maybe Lieberman is trying to get us to do mitzvas in a better way!  Or, maybe the wine lobby is even behind it!

  -- Minister of Finance Avigdor Lieberman

1. the Haredi news is reporting this as Lieberman exercising his veto - it is not a veto. For a veto there would have to be negotiations on the table, an attempt to bring them in, a desire on their side to join the coalition, and the like. Unless things are going on behind the scenes that have not been made public, which is possible, there are no attempts being made to bring them in, so this is not a veto. it is just an answer, a spicy answer, to a question he was asked by a journalist.

2. the feeling is mutual. They don't seem to want to join the coalition. I see no conflict here. 

A Haaretz oped says that Minister of Finance Avigdor Lieberman has not done enough with his cut of including Haredim in the subsidized price for day care and calls on Lieberman to expand his cuts to all discounts and subsidies that have been offered to Haredim (people who learn in Kollel) until now.

The oped makes a calculation taking into account the discounts and subsidies given to haredim, such as arnona discount, government support for kollel (plus additional kollel payment), discounts for schools, discounts for dormitories and for various forms of day care and afternoon care, minimal payments to Bituach Leumi, rental assistance, and maybe more to an average of 5000nis per family per month. 

I have no idea if this is accurate or not (Hamechadesh says it is not, but it does not offer a more accurate estimate).

So the oped says Lieberman got off to a good start but didn't do nearly enough and must cut all this out, basically giving the Haredim nothing (at least those who learn in kollel) - including the additional kollel stipend not paid by the government. I am not quite sure how Strasler, the author of the oped, expects that to be cut considering the government doesnt pay for it, but ok.

So first of all, slow down and give him a chance. We all know Lieberman is likely to make some more cuts to at least some of these programs. He has only been in office a very short time. Strasler seems to be getting overly excited at the opportunity to cut Haredi funding. Take a breath and be patient.

Second, at least some of that is welfare and will almost definitely continue no matter what. Of course that is unless welfare support in general is cut - the fact is they are on a low socio-economic level and will qualify for welfare. Health care and Bituach Leumi are paid minimally by all students and anybody not working. I highly doubt that will be changed, even by Lieberman.

the demand seems laughable, if not simply impatient. Lieberman will surely cut some more, but even he will probably not cut everything completely. 

Here is the thing though. 

the day care subsidies are run through the Ministry of Economy and Commerce. They were intended to be a form of assistance and stimulus that would encourage more people, especially more women, to go out and joint he workforce. With the young kids taken care of at a reasonable price, parents, especially mothers, would be more willing to go out and work. Receiving the subsidy as always dependent on both parents working.

At some point, I recall, the Haredi political parties lobbied the government and got avreichim included in the deal as if they are working fathers, so if the mothers would go out to work, it would be considered both parents working and they could qualify for the subsidy. They worked this out despite that not being the intention of the subsidy. It was also despite the fact that the avreichim receive a stipend, not a salary, which is a big legal difference in many government offices for many discounts received and many subsidies.

(I tried to do some research on the history of this subsidy but could not really find anything relevant. The search results were overwhelmingly about the current situation and I could not find anything relevant about the history of when avreichim were included - if anyone has specific information and details, please fill us in, even, or especially, if I am wrong)

I totally understand why the Haredi community, especially the politicians who have been speaking out about it the past few days, are outraged. This is significant money being taken away from their constituents. I have seen different estimates, but they are all pretty significant. 

I do not believe a significant number of women will stop working, as the politicians are claiming, because of this. For most women it will still be "worth" going out to work. That genie is already out of the bottle and it wont be put back in so easily - women are out in the workforce making decent salaries, having careers to some extent, meeting and communicating with other adults, being intellectually stimulated, and won't want to go back to being stuck at home changing diapers and reading books to 3 year old children all day. As honorable as being a stay at home mom is, most women who go out and feel intellectually stimulated by that and enjoy the additional income wont want to go back to being stay home moms. They won't stop working (though surely some will, especially those working in near/minimum wage positions) but they will find other solutions. Some will pay the increased full rate, because it is still worth it for them, some will find cheaper day care solutions, and some will have family to rely on to help with the kids...

I am not against the avreichim getting included in this subsidy, but just like the previous government had the right to decide to include the avreichim in it, this government has the right to say it is only for working parents, as was the original intent. The loss of one discount isnt going to destroy the Haredi community. Of course, Lieberman may still tack on a few more and that could definitely hurt many when combined, but this specific subsidy was never intended to be welfare assistance but was meant to be a stimulus for gainful employment (hence why it is processed through the Ministry of Economy and Trade and not through the various welfare departments). 

This isnt even a surprise. This is what Avigdor Lieberman campaigned on. The anger that Bennett said he would have veto power religious issues is laughable - considering how the Haredi parties have continuously attacked and bad mouthed him since the formation of the government, they still expect him to be their savior for every little thing? Besides, if he vetoes this, he might lose his government, and there are likely far more important issues coming down the pipeline that will need his veto far more than this. He can't veto everything, and they do have to pay a price for not being in the government - you can't oppose the government, stay out, attack it regularly and then still expect to get everything as if you are senior members of the government.

This is not the government starving Haredi children, or punishing them. The government isnt obligated to pay for everything just because some people want it. I can say that if you can't afford to have children, don't, and if you have them anyway, it isnt anybody else's fault when you cant feed them, but I dont even think that is the situation. But even if it is, and even if it is for some, blaming the government for them not being able to feed their own children is passing the buck. It is nice when the government does help, but raising children is the responsibility of the parents, not of the government. 

Again, I am not opposed to them getting it, as they have until now, but I am not upset and angry that it is being stopped. Agreements, discounts and subsidies come and go - that is just the way it is.

The most reasonable argument against Lieberman's decision, I think, is that the new school year is just several weeks away and this is somewhat of a last minute decision and announcement, leaving many people unsure of how to make alternate plans, should they need to. Obviously they could not make the decision and publicize it earlier, because they only recently took office and started to work on the new budget and new plans, but maybe this should have been announced as a plan for some time in the future (ie 6 months down the road, next school year, etc), leaving this year as it was already set to begin. I am not sure how far in advance similar decisions have been announced recently, but this should have been given the standard amount of advance notice (assuming it wasn't - but maybe it was)

The most interesting argument that I came up with, I think, is that this was a change promised very loudly by Avigdor Lieberman during the election campaign. When Naftali Bennett broke a campaign promise, the Haredi parties were apoplectic about it (along with Likud and Smotritch voters, but the Haredim have been specially vocal and consistent in their outrage) and speak non-stop about how you can't break [integral] campaign promises and all that. Well, this was an integral campaign promise of Avigdor Lieberman. Not only is it expected, but it would be horrible of him to go back on it because one is not allowed to break campaign promises. By the Haredi parties' own position of indignance against Bennett, Lieberman just had to keep his promise. Had he broken it and not canceled the subsidy for avreichim, I would expect the Haredi parties to equally flip out about that, and that would just be mind blowing!

  -- MK Avigdor Lieberman (Yisrael Beyteynu)

it seems more and more as Lieberman suddenly keeps talking nasty about Haredim that he must be on the payroll of the Haredi parties, as my friend Ben W theorizes. His suddenly talking about them, when he's been quiet and unnoticed for so long, is suddenly giving them a lot of momentum. The Haredi parties seem to be the only one to gain from Lieberman talking.

Initially I was a little upset, even if Lieberman deserved it. Why was I upset? Because UTJ has, in the past and even in the very recent past, refused to support such initiatives to disqualify candidates form running when they said things supporting terrorism against Israel and other anti-Israel extreme statements. UTJ always justified their refusal to participate by explaining that they will not support banning anyone, as once they do it can be turned around to ban the Haredi politicians next. Makes sense. Fair enough.

So why suddenly try to disqualify Lieberman? Because he said something against you? It is still against UTJ policy.