I have posted the ‘positive’ descriptions from the articles (links provided) on Bezalel, Katz, Itamar and how they are beginning their new posts in the current democratically elected Government (except for the electricity article):
Historic moment in our 17-year-long struggle' says Otzma Yehudit *MK
Jan 2, 2023
Commenting on the government's response to the Supreme Court today regarding its intention to regularize the status of Homesh, *MK Limor Son-Har Melech (Otzma Yehudit) has expressed her joy at the statement.
"This is a historical moment in our 17-year-long struggle against the crime of the Expulsion," she said, referring to the Disengagement. "The government is going to work toward entirely resettling Homesh as well as the other three communities in northern Samaria that were evacuated during the expulsion - Sa-nur, Ganim, and Kadim," she added.
Smotrich’s First Challenge as Finance Minister: Price Hike Tsunami
Happy calendar year! Sunday, January 1, 2023, sees a wave of price increases, most notably for electricity, fuel, and water. Of those, the incoming government is considering freezing the electricity price hike and suspending the excise tax on gasoline, as a first step in lowering the cost of living in keeping with the coalition agreements. After all, energy is the major factor in setting the cost of consumer goods and services.
At 1 PM, Sunday, outgoing Finance Minister Avigdor Liberman will welcome his successor, Bezalel Smotrich. At this point, according to Kan 11 News, the new Finance Minister does not plan to introduce immediate measures to freeze prices. Instead, he plans to include lowering the cost of electricity in the new budget. On its face, the government cannot change the price of electricity in Israel. According to the Electricity Sector Law, the Electricity Authority sets electricity rates and updates them from time to time “solely according to its professional discretion.” According to the law, the rates are set based on the “cost principle,” meaning the price is derived from the cost of producing electricity. These costs are divided into four segments: production (fuel costs and operating expenses); the cost of managing the system; the cost of transmission and distribution; and the cost of the service to the consumer (supply).
According to the Electricity Authority, the main reason for the new price hike is the increase in coal prices in the world by more than 100% over the past year. Coal is the source of fuel for 23% of the electricity produced in Israel, and when the cost of production increases significantly, it leads to an increase in electricity rates.
The simple way to bring down the cost of fuel for the Israel Electric Company is to reduce or suspend altogether the excise taxes on fuel. Liberman did that for the duration of the last election campaign and revived them, because he could, on the night between November 1 and 2, 2022. Obviously, Liberman gives cynicism a bad name.
But if Finance Minister Smotrich follows suit and freezes the excise taxes outside the context of overall government expenditure, he would bring immediate relief to consumers without taking care of all the other factors that generate outrageous prices in Israel, most crucially inflation and the steep rise of interest rates. Instead, he will likely opt for dealing with the broader economy through the 2023 budget.
Smotrich wants to see the government get out of managing prices in the marketplace, including, eventually, essential consumer goods such as bread, oil, eggs, and milk. He proposes compensating needy families directly rather than subsidizing production, alongside a massive reduction of taxes, pushing competition to promote small businesses, and solving issues related to the ports to facilitate the flow of competing imports.
He also proposes taking steps to dismantle the food monopolies in Israel through active regulation. He suggests that when prices are dictated by true market competition, there would be no need at all to control consumer prices of essential goods.
I recommend my report on Smotrich’s lengthy interview with Kan 11’s chief economic correspondent Shaul Amsterdamski. It was broadcast last August and contains his cogent and effective plan for his tenure as Finance Minister (Bezalel Smotrich Lays Out his Economic Agenda: Free Market, No More Subsidies or COLAs).
As of Sunday morning, gas prices at the pump went up 9 agorot, bringing the max for 95 octane gasoline to NIS 6.94 per liter ($7.88 per gallon). Electricity is up 8.2%, after an earlier hike of 13.3%.
Municipal property taxes go up this month by 1.37% – not based on a government decision but on an automatic formula imposed on all the municipalities. At least one municipality in central Israel that asked to suspend the hike because its finances are in very good shape, was warned by the Finance Ministry that this would constitute a violation of the law.
Yes, Israel very much needs a free-market economist to save it from its tightly-centralized system. The last free market faithful to do it was one Benjamin Netanyahu, who healed the country’s economy by taking the necessary draconian measures. The nation paid him by decapitating his Likud party down to 9 Knesset seats.
Good luck, Mr. Smotrich, we have your back. https://www.jewishpress.com/news/business-economy/smotrichs-first-challenge-as-finance-minister-price-hike-tsunami/2023/01/01/
Smotrich Cancels Tax on Disposables, Sweet Drinks
[…] Upon taking office, Smotrich said he believes in free-market policies, and would continue to a large extent the steps already taken by his predecessor, Yisrael Beytenu chair MK Avigdor Liberman. “I am a free-market person and I want to remove barriers to encourage the free market and increase competition as much as possible,” Smotrich said at the swearing-in ceremony in Jerusalem. “I’m not sure that all of our steps will be popular, but hopefully they will prove correct over time.” https://www.jewishpress.com/news/israel/government-israel/smotrich-cancels-tax-on-disposables-sweet-drinks/2023/01/01/
Ben Gvir to Police Officers: ‘Any Terrorist Trying to Harm You – His Blood Is on His Head’
“On the occasion of the ministerial exchange ceremony between incoming National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir and outgoing Internal Security Minister Omer Barlev, Minister Ben Gvir said, ‘Let it be clear to anyone who wants to launch terror attacks, that he will discover that our security forces are powerful and focused and know how to protect themselves, and let it be clear that each member of the security forces who defends his life will receive full backing for it.’ ” https://www.jewishpress.com/news/police-news/ben-gvir-to-police-officers-any-terrorist-trying-to-harm-you-his-blood-is-on-his-head/2023/01/01/
New Education Minister Plans to Restore History and Bible to the Schools
[…] One of the first changes Kish said he intends to implement is reinstating the status of history and Bible studies in senior high schools. […] “We shall educate Israeli children to values and accomplishments, alongside the acceptance of the different and the other,” Kish said. https://www.jewishpress.com/news/on-campus/new-education-minister-plans-to-restore-history-and-bible-to-the-schools/2023/01/01/
Opposition MK Elkin: Of Course, We’ll Support Renewing Judea & Samaria Regulations
[…] The new coalition chairman, MK Ofir Katz, intends to bring to a vote in the Knesset plenum the regulations of Israel’s entire enforcement and legal system in Judea and Samaria, which include the ability to judge and imprison PA Arabs and carry out police actions.[…] the new coalition agreements … include appointing three different ministers in charge of Judea and Samaria. […] Galant, Smotrich, and Ben Gvir […] https://www.jewishpress.com/news/eye-on-palestine/palestinian-authority/opposition-mk-elkin-of-course-well-support-renewing-judea-samaria-regulations/2023/01/01/
* Who is MK Limor Son Har-Melech
Even as Otzma Yehudit Chairman Itamar Ben Gvir and Religious Zionism Chairman Bezalel Smotrich are concluding negotiations to take over the mechanisms of law and order in green-line Israel and Judea and Samaria, one of Ben Gvir’s MKs, Limor Son Har-Melech, was on a bus in Samaria that was attacked by Arab terrorists Sunday night, a spokesperson for Otzma Yehudit told The Jewish Press. The terrorists fired on the full bus which was on its way back from a Chanukah candle-lighting ceremony in an area between Sa-Nur and Mevo Dotan. The bus was hit by eight bullets but there were no casualties, thank God. One more Chanukah miracle. The driver managed to stay calm, cool and collected under fire, and drove them to safety. Sa-Nur was a Jewish settlement in northern Samaria, under the jurisdiction of the Shomron Regional Council, until the 2005 expulsion of Jews from Gaza and northern Samaria. Before the exile Sa-Nur was home to 43 families. Limor Son Har-Melech, 43, was elected to the Knesset on the Otzma Yehudit list in November. She has been active in the movement to revoke the Disengagement Law that cut off settlements such as Homesh and Sa-Nur but, unlike the Gaza expulsion, did not deposit the cleared land in Arab hands. Over the past 17 years, Jews have been banned from this area, and every attempt to return was frustrated, often violently, by Israeli security forces. Limor and her husband were residents of Kdumim, near Homesh, before the expulsion. In 2003, she and her husband were attacked by terrorists. Her husband was murdered and she was seriously injured and was forced into an emergency birth. https://www.jewishpress.com/news/eye-on-palestine/palestinian-authority/otzma-yehudit-mk-limor-son-har-melech-on-bus-that-was-shot-by-terrorists/2022/12/19/
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