Liberman defends ending daycare subsidies for kids of full-time yeshiva students

Finance Minister Avigdor Liberman fires back at his ultra-Orthodox critics after announcing he would end daycare subsidies for children whose fathers are full-time yeshiva students.

Liberman tweets that children “need education and the ability to become integrated in the workforce, to make a living with respect and not to be dependent on subsidies and donations.”

Addressing the ultra-Orthodox, Liberman says they should read Maimonides, quoting the medieval Jewish sage saying one who only studies Torah and doesn’t work has “desecrated God.. and inflicted evil on himself.”

Liberman’s tweet comes as a lawmaker in his party says the rest of the coalition was aware of the treasury chief’s plans to announce the cuts, disputing a report asserting that Prime Minister Naftali Bennett was caught off-guard by yesterday’s announcement.

“We talked about a proposal for daycare subsidies for a long time. It was in the coalition agreements — this didn’t surprise anyone,” MK Alex Kushnir, chair of the Knesset Finance Committee, tells Army Radio.