Live Update 
From the Liveblog of
Wednesday, October 18, 2023
From the Liveblog of
Wednesday, October 18, 2023
Lapid suggests using coalition slush fund to help the south instead
Opposition leader Yair Lapid calls 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 attacks of October 7.
“You have NIS 9 billion of coalition funds earmarked for political bribes — let’s together pass a law immediately that will transfer the money to dealing with the war, the residents of Sderot, Be’eri and Kfar Aza, protection for Ashkelon, citizens in [financial] ruin,” he writes on X.
Smotrich is due to chair an emergency meeting on funding the war and related expenses today.
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