From the Liveblog of
Tuesday, December 31, 2024
Smotrich urges Netanyahu to make sure the budget passes
Sam Sokol is the Times of Israel's political correspondent. He was previously a reporter for the Jerusalem Post, Jewish Telegraphic Agency and Haaretz. He is the author of "Putin’s Hybrid War and the Jews"
Following two coalition parties’ threats to vote against a key budget bill, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich calls on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to “take responsibility” for making sure it passes.
Speaking during a Hanukkah toast in his Religious Zionism party’s faction room in the Knesset, Smotrich declares that he is “determined to continue to steer the Israeli economy responsibly in this year of war and not get dragged into petty squabbles.”
“The budget is not the finance minister’s, it is the State of Israel’s. The prime minister must take responsibility… and the coalition must rise to the occasion and pass the budget,” Smotrich says.
Netanyahu is currently hospitalized after having his prostate removed.
The far-right Otzma Yehudit party and ultra-Orthodox Agudat Yisrael faction of the United Torah Judaism party threatened yesterday to oppose the Trapped Profits Law, insisting their demands be met first.
The Times of Israel Community.