Lapid urges Smotrich to use coalition discretionary fund to help southern communities
Opposition chief says money should aid those left in financial straits following Hamas’s October 7 massacre; finance minister says Lapid snubbed invite to meeting
Opposition Leader Yair Lapid on Wednesday called acerbically for Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich to use NIS 9 billion ($2.2 billion) of discretionary coalition funds in the state budget to help southern Israel and the war effort after the devastating Hamas onslaught of October 7.
“You have NIS 9 billion of coalition funds earmarked for political bribes — let’s pass a law together immediately that will transfer the money to the war effort, the residents of Sderot, Be’eri, and Kfar Aza, protection for Ashkelon, citizens in [financial] ruin,” the Yesh Atid party chair wrote on X.
The 2023-2024 state budget, passed in May, included a total of NIS 13.7 billion ($3.5 billion) in discretionary spending, much of which is allocated to educational programs for the ultra-Orthodox community.
In response to the post, Smotrich claimed that he had invited Lapid to a consultation with former finance ministers Wednesday, but “he chose to respond on Twitter with political sarcasm.”
“My directive from the first stay of war is that all budgets are allocated to the management of the war and aid to the Gaza border area,” Smotrich wrote on X.
“Lapid knows this. All that is needed is Zionism instead of sarcasm. All that is needed is to rise to the challenge of the hour. Shame.”
Smotrich is heading a new council overseeing economic activity during the war and is due to chair an emergency meeting on funding the war and related expenses on Wednesday.
Based on a government decision, Smotrich’s committee is authorized to discuss war-related civilian issues including, but not limited to, the economic impact on private companies and the public sector, the rehabilitation of Gaza border communities, and ensuring that civilian services continue to function.
The successor to a panel originally created in June to tackle the soaring cost of living and chaired by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the Ministerial Committee for Social and Economic Affairs will now fall under Smotrich’s purview.
The new powers granted to the committee will be in effect until the end of the war.
Southern communities were devastated and tens of thousands of people were displaced in the Hamas terror group’s October 7 onslaught. Some 2,500 terrorists broke through the border into Israel from the Gaza Strip by land, air, and sea, murdering over 1,300 people and abducting at least 199 hostages of all ages under the cover of a bombardment of thousands of rockets fired at Israeli towns and cities.
The vast majority of those killed as gunmen seized border communities were civilians — men, women, children, and the elderly. Entire families were executed in their homes, and over 260 people were slaughtered at an outdoor music festival, many amid horrific acts of brutality by the terrorists.
At a press conference on Sunday, Smotrich said he had instructed authorities to change the order of priorities for budget allocation.
The finance minister said he was pained by Israel’s enormous security failures leading up to and during the Hamas attack, adding: “I take responsibility for what has happened and what will happen. We have to admit with pain and with a bowed head — we failed. The country’s leadership and the security system failed to maintain the security of our people.”
Asked by a reporter if he might resign over such failures, Smotrich said: “There will be enough time for soul-searching, and perhaps score-settling.” He said among matters that would need looking into would be the 1993 Oslo Accords and the 2005 Gaza Disengagement.
Also on Sunday, Israel’s Tax Authority opened up applications for an estimated NIS 80 million ($20 million) of monetary assistance grants for residents of Gaza border communities who were evacuated or chose to leave in the period of time since Hamas launched its mass assault.
Residents of communities within seven kilometers of the Gaza Strip border are eligible for grants, according to a cabinet decision.
The grants — NIS 1,000 ($250) per person and up to NIS 5,000 ($1,250) per family — are intended to assist evacuees with their initial expenses.
The grants are not considered compensation for property damage and will not count against future damage claims, a spokesperson for Smotrich specified.
Gaza border communities — including Sderot, a city of some 30,000 — have been largely evacuated.
As the northern border heated up, the IDF and Defense Ministry on Monday announced plans to evacuate civilians who live in towns up to two kilometers (1.25 miles) from the Lebanese border, due to repeated rocket and missile attacks by the Hezbollah terror group and allied Palestinian factions in recent days.
The ministry’s National Emergency Management Authority (NEMA) said the estimated 27,000 residents would be taken to state-funded guesthouses.
Many residents in northern border towns had already evacuated southward, due to the escalating attacks from Lebanon.
The Times of Israel Community.