Bibi: Israel Can’t Afford To Cut Taxes
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected calls to lower taxes and increase government spending on Sunday, saying that his government was using tax money to safeguard Israel’s security as well as its economy.
“We need the taxes to buy more Iron Domes, to complete the fence’s construction, to pay for children’s free education, to pave roads and lay train tracks, to aid the elderly and needy,” the premier said.
On Saturday, as hundreds of protesters took to the streets of Tel Aviv, Netanyahu decided to raise the price of gasoline by only 5 agorot a liter, despite an expected 20 agorot increase.
The new prices that came into force at midnight on Saturday night mean a liter of 95-octane gas will now cost NIS 8 at full-service pumps and NIS 7.79 at self-service pumps.
The decision to moderate the rise in the price of gas will be achieved by cutting the excise tax on gasoline, and the budgetary shortfall will be covered by cutting spending and government jobs.
This is the second time in a month that Netanyahu has intervened to prevent gas prices from going over NIS 8 per liter. Like the last time, the announcement of Netanyahu’s intervention also came a few minutes before the central 8 P.M. news broadcast.
For more, go to Haaretz.com
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning journalism this Passover.
In this age of misinformation, our work is needed like never before. We report on the news that matters most to American Jews, driven by truth, not ideology.
At a time when newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall. That means for the first time in our 126-year history, Forward journalism is free to everyone, everywhere. With an ongoing war, rising antisemitism, and a flood of disinformation that may affect the upcoming election, we believe that free and open access to Jewish journalism is imperative.
Readers like you make it all possible. Right now, we’re in the middle of our Passover Pledge Drive and we still need 300 people to step up and make a gift to sustain our trustworthy, independent journalism.
Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
Only 300 more gifts needed by April 30