Bibi must tell the truth to his ultra-Orthodox partners

PM Netanyahu and the Treasury find themselves under escalating pressure of the Haredi Coalition partners to increase funding for the Haredi yeshivas.

30/07/2020 14:24

Tags: Netanyahu · Haredim · economy · child benefits

Bibi Netanyahu, source: Wikipedia

The powerful Chair of the Knesset Finance Committee has successfully threatened to prevent passing of the emergency measures aimed at providing financial assistance to the whole population during the pandemic crisis if this assistance is capped at 3 children per family and not be increased per each additional child.

There is no doubt that during the corona crisis food and livelihood must be ensured for all, but, at the same time, in formulating the budget and policy agenda for next year, Bibi must tell the truth to his ultra-Orthodox partners, and he must lead according to it. The pandemic hit the ultra-Orthodox community particularly hard, in part because of its poverty, resulting with large families restricted to small apartments, serving as breeding spaces for the virus.

Pulling out of the crisis, both economically and health-wise requires doubling the efforts at integration of ultra-Orthodox men in the labor market rather than condemn their families to poverty and undermine Israeli economy. All senior economists in Israel know and say this. Netanyahu does as well, as he demonstrated when serving as Sharon’s Finance Minister in 2003 and facing severe economic crisis. This is what he said then, and this is what he needs to tell his Haredi political partners now, if the well-being of the country is his guide:

Finance Minister Netanyahu [2003] when he announced drastic cuts in State awarded child benefits, that mostly impacted in Haredi and Arab families:“The cause of this most severe impact and entry into the continuous cycle of poverty is the policy of [providing] excessive child benefits, which has taken whole generations out of the labor force…

Finance Minister Netanyahu [2003] when he announced drastic cuts in State awarded child benefits, that mostly impacted in Haredi and Arab families:

“The cause of this most severe impact and entry into the continuous cycle of poverty is the policy of [providing] excessive child benefits, which has taken whole generations out of the labor force… I want people to have children that they can support… A man can .. bring a family into the world with as many children as he wants, but he needs to understand that he has the primary responsibility to support them, educate them, finance them, take care of their future. He cannot abdicate this responsibility and transfer all or most of it to the state.”

“We as a state cannot afford to spend money without limit, even for something desirable… for families with many children. We need someone to support them, and the first [people] obligated to support them are the parents.”

You may want to listen to the concise and excellent [Hebrew] radio account by Yishai Shnerb from IDF Radio (dated July 21, 2020). The documentation shows that Bibi of 2003 knew what was good for the Israeli economy during the crisis, and he acted accordingly, but Bibi of 2021 and of recent years… even though he knows what is good for the Israeli economy, he does the opposite in kowtowing to the dictates of his ultra-Orthodox partners – both in regards to providing subsidies and financial benefits and in regards to foregoing the legal requirement to implement core curricular studies in all state funded Haredi schools.