Chairperson of Yesh Atid, Yair Lapid, delivered the following statement this afternoon at the beginning of a faction meeting in Tel Aviv:
In the past two years the people around this table woke up every morning and went to work. They worked to change the priorities in Israel. They worked to place the middle class and the weakest in society firmly in the center, so that the country would work for them and not for the members of the Likud Central Committee or special interest groups who make money at the expense of the citizens of Israel.
We didn't have enough time, and even though we made some mistakes we learnt from them and we managed to do a huge amount.
We filled a hole in the budget of 40 billion shekels and tackled the economic crisis left by Netanyahu, we brought down the size of his government to no more than 18 ministers and cancelled the unnecessary position of "Minister Without Portfolio." We passed the equal burden law, cut back on the allocations for yeshivot and struck off the law which funded schools even if they didn't teach core subjects. We brought to an end the corruption in the government companies and added billions of shekels from trapped profits and the black market. With those funds we created the school summer programs and saved thousands of shekels for tens of thousands of young families.
We put together the plan to assist Holocaust survivors with over a billion shekels, a plan that provides them with free medication and increases their benefits, but in essence it is a plan which allows them to live out the rest of their lives in dignity.
Together, we started a process to increase the supply of housing after prices increased by over 80% under Netanyahu. Last month, for the first time prices began to decrease, and now they're increasing again. Together, we prevented tax increases on the middle class in the last budget despite all the pressures.
In the past two years, Netanyahu did everything to delay these changes. Even now, he's trying to stop the most social budget presented here in years, a budget which increases the investment in education, health and welfare by over 10 billion shekels.
Netanyahu prevented us from granting 190,000 elderly people increased benefits which would help them break out of the cycle of poverty. He prevented us from granting young couples their only chance to own an apartment with a 200,000 shekel saving through the VAT exemption bill.
He prevented the public from receiving 4 billion shekels for the medical services to bring down the cost of health insurance, reduce waiting times and increase the basket of medicines through the public system.
He took away from the Israeli public the break-up of the water conglomerates, an additional 1,100 police officers and prison guards from the Internal Security ministry, the summer programs, the program to reduce class sizes and the psychometric exam reforms, the national plan to reduce the cost of living which will decrease banking fees, cut the cost of pensions and bring down the cost of food.
Even if he decided to go to elections, all Netanyahu had to do was wait one more month! A month, and the budget would have passed with everything that's important to the Israeli public. Why didn't he do it? Because he doesn't really care about the citizens of Israel. All he cares about is remaining in his job, with all the perks.
That's the bad news. The good news is that all this can be changed. All these programs are ready, the groundwork is behind us, the train is ready to depart a month after the elections. That's why we're here. That's why we'll cooperate – either before the elections or after them – with anyone who sits in the political center and wants to ensure the middle class and the weakest in society live in a society which cares about them, with a strong and growing economy, where the rules of the game are fair, where the priorities are right, where our international relations aren’t being destroyed every day.
Real change won't come from the left or the extreme right, real change can only come from the center. For six years Bibi has been holding Israel back but he won't stop the change Israel needs anymore.
For More Information Contact:
Yair Zivan
International Media Advisor for Yair Lapid and Yesh Atid
Phone: 0523450061