Cabinet to convene on Tuesday for first time in over 3 weeks
After meetings scrapped in past month due to coalition crisis, Kushner visit, ministers to discuss approving further funds for state budget
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The cabinet will convene next week for the first time in three weeks, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said Friday.
The meeting will be held Tuesday afternoon rather than Sunday, when the cabinet usually meets.
A statement from the Prime Minister’s Office said ministers would discuss approving additional funds for the state budget, which were agreed upon as part of a deal between Netanyahu’s Likud party and Defense Minister Benny Gantz’s Blue and White to avert new elections.
The Ministerial Committee for Legislation is also expected to meet next week after not convening for several weeks, according to Channel 12 news.
Three cabinet meetings over the past month were canceled amid a coalition crisis over the passage of the state budget, with the most recent meeting scrapped due to the visit of a US delegation led by White House senior adviser Jared Kushner.
The disagreement between the sides nearly led to new elections, but Likud and Blue and White reached a compromise to push off the deadline to pass a state budget to December 23. Israel has been without a state budget since 2019.
The agreement removed the immediate threat of the country going to the polls again for the fourth time in under two years, but the parties remain deeply at odds on several issues and many analysts believe the government is still on life support and will not survive beyond the next deadline.
If the coalition still fails to agree on a budget for the final days of 2020, the country will head to new elections in March, with Netanyahu keeping his seat throughout the process.
Under the coalition agreement, Netanyahu must hand over the reins of the government to Gantz in November 2021, or earlier if the government collapses — except in the case of the coalition dissolving due to failure to pass a budget through the end of 2021.
Many see the battle as a manufactured crisis designed to help Netanyahu stay in power without having to make good on a rotation agreement with Gantz.
Additionally, the Finance Ministry’s top professional official resigned Sunday as head of the Treasury’s budget department in protest of the government’s recent economic policies, after months of infighting with Finance Minister Israel Katz.
“Every week, I am horrified to discover that the budget framework changes without any professional discussion, orderly thinking or long-term planning,” Shaul Meridor wrote.
The Times of Israel Community.