Channel 12 News reported on Wednesday that incoming Finance Minister Avigdor Lieberman (Yisrael Beiteinu) is planning to cut state unemployment benefits for hundreds of thousands of Israelis.
Sources at the finance ministry have reported that Lieberman argued during their meetings that there are currently 130,000 available jobs and therefore people should be encouraged to work.
The government’s economic safety net plan, which had offered job seekers payments of up to 70% of their original salary during the coronavirus pandemic, is scheduled to end at the end of June.
The incoming government’s approach is a sharp departure from the model presented only three weeks ago by outgoing Finance Minister Yisrael Katz (Likud), in which it was agreed that Israeli citizens who currently receive unemployment payments would be able to continue doing so even after the end of June, depending on their age and marital status.
The Adva Center reported that during the COVID-19 crisis, Israel’s wealthiest 1% received the most expeditious state protection and benefits.
The Bank of Israel supported large corporations by purchasing 15 billion shekels worth of corporate bonds. This aid accounted for the fact that the Tel Aviv 90 stock index increased in value by roughly 18% during the first year of the pandemic while unemployment skyrocketed and the country’s actual economy shrank.
Lieberman’s statement might be a sign of what Israelis should expect from the incoming “change coalition” that united parties across the political spectrum in an effort to oust Binyamin Netanyahu (Likud) from the prime minister’s office.
During Israel’s most recent election cycle, incoming Prime Minister Naftali Bennett (Yamina) laid out his “Singapore plan” to bring “Reaganomics” to the State of Israel.
Such a plan would continue to benefit Israel’s ruling class while further brutalizing the country’s most vulnerable citizens.
Although the ostensibly “leftist” Meretz and Labor factions are part of the incoming coalition, their voters are amongst the wealthiest Israelis. Meretz and Labor so far appear to be abandoning the working class to the designs of Bennet and Lieberman while using their leverage in the new coalition to advance a westernization agenda focused on cultural issues and the character of the state.
