Meet the new boss

A few days after prospective Bank of Israel governor Jacob Frenkel dropped out of the race to replace Stanley Fischer, a new candidate has emerged as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s top choice: Leo Leiderman. His appointment remains to be approved by the Turkel Committee, and the press is still unsure as to what his policies would be should he take the helm.

Unlike Fischer, Leiderman “is expected to be ‘the social governor'” of the national bank, writes Maariv, “who combines capitalism with a socialist spirit.” It posits that like other South American economists in Israel, like Manuel Trajtenberg, he “will not worry foremost about the tycoons and bankers.” Haaretz writes that Leiderman, the chief economist for Bank Hapoalim, is a middle of the road Israeli economist.

“He is not expected to continue with Fischer’s policies on issues such as the housing bubble and the Bank of Israel’s intervention in foreign exchange rates, and it can be assumed that he will be more delicate on matters of social imbalance, poverty and education,” it writes.

Israel Hayom, however, reports that Netanyahu quickly chose Leiderman as Fischer’s replacement so as to project financial stability, and (perhaps in the same vein) argues that Leiderman is cut from the same cloth as Fischer and Frenkel.

Examination of his stances on major economic issues suggests otherwise. Yedioth Ahronoth lists bullet points on Leiderman’s economic policies, none of which jibes with his predecessor’s. It writes that he warned against additional growth in the budget deficit, voiced opposition against raising VAT and called it “an unreasonable move,” and said keeping interest rates low would create new financial bubbles.

Writing in a Yedioth column, Merav Betito rails against the male establishment’s appointment of Leiderman to the Bank of Israel’s governorship, which shunted deputy governor Karnit Flug out of the running for a promotion. She contends there’s an “accepted boy’s club” at the top of the Israeli financial world to which Flug cannot belong, and for that reason she wasn’t nominated for governor.

“You just don’t believe that a woman can stand at the top of the grand system you’ve built with your own gnarled hands,” Betito writes. “Or worse, you can’t see her mingling into the cocktail parties of heavy-pursed banking elites, making small talk with males and doing the job right.”

The Knesset on Wednesday voted in favor of raising the electoral bar for political parties — to the dismay of minor factions — but opposition MKs and pundits were equally silent about the bill. The bill, which passed the first of three readings in parliament, aims to raise the minimum threshold for parties to enter from 2% of the vote to 4%, a move which threatens to disqualify the existing Arab parties and the left-wing Meretz party. 

Maariv reports that the bill passed 64-49, but only after several coalition MKs, including Justice Minister Tzipi Livni, were recalled from abroad to cast their votes to break the necessary 61 for the bill to pass. Although Israel Hayom consigns the story to Page 9, it makes sure to mention that Opposition chairwoman Shelly Yachimovich voiced outrage at the bill, saying it aimed to expel Arabs from the Knesset.

Haaretz reports that there was a “stormy debate” in the Knesset, and mentions that the minor parties demonstrated their opposition to the bill with “deafening silence” at the podium. According to Maariv, MKs Mohammed Barakeh, Hanin Zoabi and Basel Ghattas of the Arab parties and Michal Rozin and Zahava Gal-on of Meretz stood silent at the podium, and “MK Jamal Zahalke of Balad outdid it when he silenced himself by covering his mouth with tape.”

“He then addressed those sitting in the plenary: ‘This was an example of the Knesset without Arab MKs. A Knesset without opposition,'” the paper quoted Zahalke saying.

None of the major papers’ pundits offer insight into the long-term ramifications of the bill.

Haaretz also runs a report about the ongoing legal battle over 12 Palestinian villages south of Hebron in an area the Israeli military designates Firing Zone 918. The military has attempted to evict the residents for the better part of two decades, and the paper reports that the reason behind the decision, according to the state’s response to appeals to the High Court of Justice, “was to save the IDF’s time and money.”

“The proximity of the firing zone to the training base enables savings of the most precious resource of all in the field of IDF training – the resource of time,” Haaretz citesas  the brief statement. “This proximity also enables significant savings of money, in light of the high costs entailed in transporting hundreds of combatants, equipment and vehicles for training to a distant firing zone.”