Battling for budgets

Fiscal matters are still top billing for the Israeli press on Wednesday as the severity of Finance Minister Yair Lapid’s tax hikes and budget cuts starts to settle in.

Israel Hayom runs an article in which it quotes a husband and wife from Hadera (with an income and lifestyle suspiciously similar to those of Lapid’s mythical Riki Cohen) who tell the paper that, after voting for Lapid, they’ve been disappointed already by his financial management.

“Dear Lapid, you’re going to hurt us, the middle class. The class that you promised most to protect you’re going to hurt the most, and we, as a family of five with three young children, already see how we’re going to pay the price again — at least NIS 3,000 per year,” Oren and Mariela Bushri say.

Haaretz‘s business section deals largely with the coming austerity measures — at the fore of which are the one percent increase in VAT, the 1.5% increase in income tax for every tax bracket, and purchase tax on apartments. The paper comments that alongside these hikes are luxury taxes on cigars and big screen TVs, but “despite this, the Finance Ministry is still avoiding levying an inheritance or gift tax, which exist in many advanced countries.”

The bottom line, says Haaretz (as does every other paper) is that the austerity measures Lapid has proposed are “a more serious hit to the middle and lower classes, compared to a symbolic hit to the upper classes.”

Worry not, lower and middle classes, if there is one politician who will vouchsafe your protection and thwart the pernicious plans of Yesh Atid’s anti-populist leader, it’s… Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu?

According to Maariv, Netanyahu (currently in China) has considered canceling part of the financial measures found in Lapid’s draft bill, a move that has already enraged Lapid’s inner circle.

“The State of Israel is stuck in an especially large budgetary hole, and at this time we need to prefer necessary and responsible steps over the easy and populist way out,” sources close to the finance minister are quoted in Maariv saying. “Any other decision will only deepen the budgetary hole the state is stuck in.”

Senior Finance Ministry officials are quoted by the paper bashing Netanyahu’s fiscal policies, saying, “Every time Netanyahu comes to a juncture at which he needs to choose between responsible steps and popular steps, he chooses the popular option.”

Yedioth Ahronoth reports that Netanyahu “avoided… standing by his finance minister” and didn’t comment on domestic financial matters while speaking to the press in Shanghai. The paper quotes sources close to Lapid saying that Netanyahu is trying to shanghai Lapid into pushing for tough fiscal measures, then overturn them and garner the affection of the middle class, “as he did in the past with former finance minister Yuval Steinitz.”

“Through canceling the financial measures [Netanyahu] will try to portray himself as a defender of the middle class,” the sources are quoted saying.

Israel Hayom also compares two of Lapid’s Facebook posts, one before the elections and the other from just the other day. In the former, Lapid vows not to use the middle class as an ATM; in the latter he explains to his followers that there is no other choice but to go through with these austerity measures which will punish the middle class.

“Yes. It’s hard. We knew it would be hard, but it’s not the same thing when it really comes. It’s hard and people are angry, but that’s exactly what taking responsibility means: doing what’s difficult when everyone’s mad at you,” he said.

After slogging through depressing financial news, most readers certainly want something more cheerful. Maariv reports that Syrian President Bashar Assad addressed the alleged Israeli airstrikes on Tuesday in a meeting with the Iranian foreign minister.

“The latest Israeli attack exposes the Israeli occupation’s intervention and regional states’ support for its actions in Syria,” Assad said. “The Syrian nation and its brave army have accomplished significant achievements in the struggle against terror and infidel groups, and are capable of confronting Israel, which constitutes another facet in the daily terror against Syria.”

Netanyahu on Tuesday ordered the Foreign Ministry to begin negotiations to reinitiate ties with the United Nations Human Rights Council, after former foreign minister Avigdor Liberman severed relations with the organization last year. According to Haaretz, Swiss Foreign Minister Didier Burkhalter visited Israel last week and, in a meeting with Netanyahu, “emphasized that severed ties with the council hurts Israel and lends to its isolation.” Netanyahu thereafter instructed Deputy Foreign Minister Ze’ev Elkin to find a solution to the impasse.