Talking trash
ARUTZ7 9/8/99: "Over 90,000 tons of garbage are piled up along
Israeli streets, as a result of the municipal workers' strike.
Talks between the sides last night were unsuccessful in resolving
the issues, but there is renewed optimism that a solution can be
found by tonight. Leading rabbis have ruled that the garbage
filling the streets represents a "desecration of the [upcoming
Rosh HaShanah] holiday."
Initial budget approval
ARUTZ7 9/8/99: "The first stage of the approval of Israel's year
2000 budget was passed last night by the Cabinet. The
originally-proposed cuts to education and child allowance were
canceled, and the cut to the army will be smaller than planned.
Instead, across-the-board cuts will be instituted in the all
government offices.
The budget of the Settlement Wing of the Jewish Agency is
scheduled to be cut a whopping 47%, from 188 million shekels to
100 million shekels. Avraham Duvdevani, head of the Settlement
Wing, said that the cuts will "cripple the settlement enterprise
in Yesha, the Jordan Valley, and the Golan Heights."
He told
Arutz-7 that ever since Oslo, "when we were prevented from
establishing new communities, we have focused on community
infrastructure and expansion, employment for local residents,
funding and organizing extra-curricular education - in short,
everything that contributes to smooth day-to-day functioning of
communities in Yesha, the Jordan Valley and Golan...
It's clear
that when you cut a large organization's budget by 50%, it means
that you want to suffocate it. This is purely a political
decision."...
Shin Bet methods
HA'ARETZ 9/9/99: "Prime Minister Ehud Barak yesterday outlined to
his cabinet new proposals governing interrogations by the Shin
Bet internal security service. But he stopped short of calling
for new legislation on the Shin Bet's use physical pressure
during interrogations. Barak said he wants to study the landmark
High Court of Justice ruling forbidding so-called torture
measures. He wants to find a legal arrangement creating a balance
that would enable Shin Bet to continue using "special
interrogation methods" in cases of immediate security risks.
Barak's proposal calls for an authority independent of the Shin
Bet that will be charged with authorizing "special interrogation
methods" in cases of immediate danger.
Under his plan,
authorization to use physical pressure would be given on an
individual basis and in advance, and not as blanket
authorizations. In recent years a special ministerial committee
on Shin Bet interrogations, headed by the prime minister, has
acted to give the security services general authorization to
employ "special methods" in interrogating terror suspects,
usually for three month periods, and the head of Shin Bet has
needed to make a new request to the committee each time the
authorization period is due to expire."
Shas' ultimatum
HA'ARETZ 9/9/99: "Shas presented the government with an ultimatum
yesterday, insisting it would quit the coalition if the
government did not authorize the immediate transfer of NIS 12
million to the movement's Ma'ayan Ha'hinuch Ha'torani educational
network, which is in dire financial straits. Teachers in the Shas
system have not been paid for the last three months. Shas Chair
Eli Yishai's spokesperson said last night that the ultimatum was
"until the beginning of the holiday" - in other words, until
tomorrow evening. Last night Shas's leaders agreed in principle
to the basics of a recovery plan for the educational network,
formulated by the treasury and Education Ministry.
Shas is
demanding, however, that the plan be spread out over two years,
instead of two months as proposed. A meeting scheduled for today
at the Finance Ministry is set to decide whether to transfer the
money that Shas is demanding and which Education Minister Yossi
Sarid has so far refused to hand over, basing his decision on
Attorney General Elyakim Rubinstein's expert opinion.
Prime
Minister Ehud Barak plans to continue his efforts to solve the
crisis today. The Prime Minister's Office estimates that if the
money is not transferred to the school system during the day,
Shas's four ministers will resign from the government and the
whole faction will quit the coalition.
Barak was reported to be
furious at Shas yesterday for staying away from the Knesset
assembly during the vote on the Sharm el Sheikh agreement and for
keeping its ministers away from Tuesday night's cabinet vote on
the budget. Barak told his associates that he failed to
understand why Shas insisted on linking the government and
Knesset votes with the transfer of funds to its school network.
Barak refused to meet with Shas's ministers before the Knesset
vote yesterday, saying there was no connection between the two
issues.
The education and finance ministries are conditioning the
transfer of the NIS 12 million - the regular monthly budget the
Shas schools are entitled to - upon Shas's leaders signing two
written commitments: one undertaking to close down all of the
party's unlicensed schools and appoint an accountant to oversee
the network's activities, and the other undertaking to accept a
recovery plan recommended by the Ne'eman Commission.
Meanwhile,
Channel One commentator Amnon Abramovitch last night revealed a
report on Shas's school system's financial condition, suggesting
possible criminal offenses. The draft of the report, compiled by
a noted Tel Aviv accounting firm, points to waste on a large
scale and alleged corruption in the managing of the network's
budget. The report lists a host of extravagant events..."
Levy to lead talks
HA'ARETZ 9/9/99: "The involvement of IDF officers in the peace
talks will be limited to the security elements of the
negotiations, Prime Minister Ehud Barak has decided, according to
senior diplomatic sources. In the meantime, Israel's top
negotiator, attorney Gilad Sher, yesterday asked to be relieved
of his appointment, and Foreign Minister David Levy was named to
head the final-status talks with the Palestinians...In asking to
be relieved of his appointment as head of the delegation to the
talks on the permanent settlement, Sher informed the prime
minister that he will be returning to work full-time at the law
firm where he is a partner. Attorney General Elyakim Rubinstein
had ruled that Sher would not be able to continue in his service
as Israel's chief negotiator due to a possible conflict of
interest with his private lawyer's practice.
He will continue to
serve as an external adviser to Barak, however, and he will
continue to carry out other tasks for the prime minister in the
future negotiations with the Palestinians and the Syrians..."
US-UN-Israel
ISRAEL LINE 9/8/99: "The United States will work to integrate
Israel in the Western bloc of countries at the United Nations,
U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright promised Foreign
Minister David Levy during their discussions in Jerusalem on
Friday, HA'ARETZ reported. Israel has long sought to become a
member of the Western bloc at the UN, but has encountered
opposition from some European countries. Albright said she has
already instructed the American ambassador to the UN, Richard
Holbrooke, to attempt to strengthen Israel's position at the
organization. Levy and Albright are scheduled to meet at the UN
General Assembly in three weeks."
Mein Kampf a hit!
HA'ARETZ 9/9/99: "Adolph Hitler's infamous MEIN KAMPF has become
a best seller in the territories of the Palestinian Authority.
The Arabic translation of the book is currently sixth on the list
of best sellers that put together by book store owners in
Ramallah and published in the daily Al-Hayat al-Jedida. One book
store owner, Nicholas Amal, said that he personally sells a dozen
copys per week, despite the fact that "Ramallah is a small town
and the Palestinians aren't well-known book lovers."
Taxes
HA'ARETZ 9/9/99-Analysis by Guy Rolnick: "Having a hard time
figuring out what happened at the cabinet meeting on the budget?
Confused by the ceilings, floors, allowances and by the vertical
and horizontal cuts? Can't understand how they canceled the cuts
to allowances, decided not to cut the Education Ministry budget
and still were able to announce that there was no deviation from
the deficit target? The puzzle isn't all that complicated. It has
only one solution: taxes. Direct taxes, indirect taxes and hidden
taxes. What kind of taxes are these? The same taxes that Prime
Minister Ehud Barak, Finance Minister Avraham Shochat, treasury
clerks and Bank of Israel officials have, for two months, been
saying must not be levied. Of course every tax has an explanation
- a disguise.
Every tax comes with its own story. Some taxes are
"temporary," so we aren't supposed to be concerned; others
suddenly become "obvious in retrospect" and were therefore
included in other Finance Ministry-initiated reforms. It begins
with the tax on diesel fuel for transportation. This tax was
supposed to be included in an ostensibly "neutral" reform of the
energy industry.
"Neutral" in this case means that the NIS 350
million in additional taxes was supposed to go hand in hand with
a reduction in taxes on other fuels. In the meantime, half of the
work has been done: the taxes were raised.
It goes on to the lifting of the tax ceilings for the National
Insurance Institute and health insurance. It was supposed to be a
"rich people's tax," a tax on "bank managers," a tax on all those
corrupt stock exchange players who earn such outrageous salaries.
In practice, however, it is a tax that traps within it not only
bank managers and the robber barons of publicly traded companies,
but also many workers in high-tech industries - the kind of
people who the treasury and the prime minister claim they want to
promote.
And it actually bothers the millionaires' rest not at
all, since for them health insurance and NII payments make up a
negligible proportion of their salaries. The treasury claims that
these taxes are "temporary" - just for one year. But we are know
full well that there are few things more permanent than something
that is "temporary," especially when it comes to taxes...
The good news is that the treasury believes that the tax
increases approved last night are temporary; that there will be a
tax reform and that next year there will also be a rise in
spending on infrastructure. The bad news is that the first budget
submitted by the finance minister was plucked, trimmed and
distorted, and in the meantime, the primary assumption of the
Finance Ministry officials is that things could have been even
worse."
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