Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has failed to honor a promise not to cut the Transportation Minstry’s budget. Yesterday Olmert loudly declared that proposed cuts of NIS 150 million to the National Traffic Safety Authority, which had been announced the previous week, were being officially revoked. He said that the budget for the Authority would remain NIS 550 million ($131 million). August was one of the most deadly months on Israeli roads this year with some 41 people killed in traffic accidents.

It now turns out that the budget cuts will simply be made elsewhere in the Transportation Ministry.