Overall I thought Betzalel Smotrich, Minister of Finance, did a pretty decent job in this role, especially when taking into account the difficult wars of the past 3 years through which he had to navigate the economy. The above clip though is an insult to the intelligence of the Israeli people.

The price of gas (95 Octane) in Israel is set by the government (the maximum price - gas stations can charge less if they so desire) and includes a heavy "blu tax". The price is adjusted the first of every month as per the fluctuations of the global oil markets and whatever else affects the price of gasoline.

Minister of Finance Avigdor Lieberman probably doesnt read this blog but he finally did something I have been recommending - lowering the tax on gasoline/petrol.

The price of gasoline is going up once again tomorrow night. The monthly price change will once again be an increase, to the tune of an additional 39 agurot per liter of regular gasoline. 

The news is reporting that due to the increase in gas prices tonight at midnight there are long lines of cars at the gas stations waiting to fill up their gas tanks before the price increase.

It looks like the lockdown is coming to an end. 

Prices of gas went down at the same time we went into both the first and second lockdowns. The first time it even went down a lot. Just after we came out of lockdown the prices went up again.

During the corona lockdown the government lowered the price of gas significantly. At the time I suggested, on Facebook, that they were only lowering the price to get some goodwill knowing that nobody was using gas anyway so they were currying favor without giving anything up.

I guessed that as soon as the restrictions ease up and people have where to go again and places to drive to the prices would be brought back up.

People laughed and scoffed.

Looks like I wasnt so off.

The government announced today a sharp increase in price taking effect at midnight tonight. The increase is going to be by 0.42ag per liter, back up to the price of 5.21nis per liter of gasoline.

I am sure the financials of it are actually intricate and complicated, but yes, when nobody could go anywhere they excited us by lowering the price significantly and now that we can get in our cars again and go places they brought it right back up.

With nowhere to go and nothing to do, and not even being allowed to be out of your house for almost any reason, the government is lowering the price of gas.

Tomorrow night, Tuesday night, the price of regular unleaded gasoline will be lowered to 4.89nis per liter. Since I have been in Israel with a car, nearly 25 years, I do not remember the price of gas being this low. This price drop would be slashing 17.3% off the current price.

It seems to be a result of the CoronaVirus causing the prices of oil and benzine to drop drastically.
source: Ynet

Just our luck. The normally high price of gas drops significantly but there is no real reason to fill up your tank because there is no way to take advantage of it.

Quote Of The Day

We do not control the price of oil around the world, but we can try to lighten, in a measured and responsible way, the plight of the citizens. Whomever says that we can lower the taxes and expand our spending at the expense of the deficit is lacking responsibility and knowledge of economics... We need taxes in order to buy more "Iron Dome" systems, to complete the system fencing the southern border.. 

  -- Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, relating to criticism regarding the price of gasoline which is set to rise again this week
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Supreme Court Justice Dorit Beinisch finished her term today as president of the Supreme Court justices and retired. Justice Beinisch chose her final verdict to be on social issues, as she says social issues are close to her heart and dear to her.

The ruling Beinisch leaves us with is overturning part of the welfare law that says that a person who owns a car is disqualified from receiving income support. The car has been looked at in the law as a luxury, and someone on welfare and income support, should not be able to collect if they can afford that luxury. This law has been attacked for a very long time as discriminatory against the weaker sectors of society. (source: Jpost)

Beinisch overturning this qualification means the car will now be considered a necessity rather than a luxury.

Beinisch's important decision might have been rendered meaningless even before it was announced. The price of gasoline in Israel is going up to about $8 per gallon. While families on income support might now be allowed to own a car, the director of the Finance Ministry thinks people who can't afford the gas should instead take a bus, reminiscent of Marie Antoinette saying "Let them eat cake"..

The Finance Ministry rejected suggestions that they lower the taxes on gasoline. Instead, they feel they "can influence the use of alternatives and encourage the public to use public transportation and buy cars that use less gas...".

Saturday night, we were returning from a nice Shabbos spent in Jerusalem. It was about 10:45pm or so, and we stopped to fill up with gas (prices were always ridiculous, so the new price increase has little affect on anything) at the Paz gas station just after Shaar HaGay on Highway 38.

I pull up to the self serve lane and start filling the tank. Generally, I take out the keys form the ignition when I get out to pump gas, but my kids were listening to a cassette (yes I still have a cassette player in my car, not a cd player), so I left it on for them.

A digression for some description: the area in the gas station just in front of where we are is a parking area for people going in to buy stuff in the station, along with an air pump for tires. There are always a number of cars parked there. There were some on Saturday night as well, including one or two I had seen pull up as I was waiting for my turn at the gas pump.

So, as the gas is pumping, I was washing the back window of the car. Just then I hear a screech and a smash, like the sound of a car smashing into another. I look up and see a small dark car, having smashed past another small red car, speeding towards me in reverse. He must have been doing about 50 or 60 kmph in reverse, and he was swerving. I thought he was either going to smash into my car, or into the gas pumps and we would all die. Sure enough, he avoided us both and sped away on the other side of the same pump. He turned the car around and sped out of the gas station the wrong way (he egressed through the entry) and sped away turning left (illegaly) towards Highway 1.

All of the sudden I saw about 5 or 6 other people jumping out of a few cars - the red car, another big white van that was partially blocking the gas station exit, and another car. Right away I ran to the front of the car and took out the car keys. At that moment I suspected the guy had stolen that dark car. I remembered that there were stories that in this gas station it is common that when people leave their keys in the ignition while pumping gas, sometimes somebody jumps in and steals the car. So I ran over and took the keys out of the ignition.

(BTW, this is all happening so fast, I did that as the car was speeding by me still)

As I was taking out the keys, I see the people who had jumped out of cars screaming to stop the car and running in various directions. One guy was carrying some sort of stick. Another guy was waving a gun around (about 3 feet in front of me). And all 5 or 6 guys were wearing sweat shirts with hoods.

As the guy sped away, they all got back in their cars and left to chase him (I guess).

Nobody knew what that was all about. The gas station attendant called the police I think, but while we were there nobody showed up. Meanwhile we were all talking about what it might have been. The main suggestions were either an undercover policeman trying to arrest someone on a drug deal or something like that, and the guy got away. the other suggestion was that it was meant to be a mafia/gang hit, and the guy got away. I finished pumping the gas and left. I saw nothing about it in any of the news media yesterday....

If you have been wondering why gasoline prices in the US have been so high, I think you might be about to get your answer.

According to the reports, some prince in Saudi Arabia, where they control most of the oil in the world, has just purchased the first private jumbojet. The purchase cost him 160 million Euros. That is something like $235 million dollars. And if that is not enough, he has decided to refurbish it to make it luxurious. the total cost will end up in the range of 250 million Euros (about 370 million dollars).

You can go read about all the luxurious amenities he is having installed in the airplane. The most frivolous of them all, in my opinion, is the 30 million Euros being spent on painting the outside of the plane in gold leafing...

So when you are pumping your gas at the station and paying over $3 per gallon, you now know where that money is going...