Member of Knesset Miri Regev (Likud) called on Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz on Monday to accept the position of Professor Eugene Kandel, the head of Israel’s National Economic Council, who recently came out in favor of the immediate establishment of a public welfare fund from anticipated gas and oil revenues from the major find off the northern Israeli coast.
Regev said that the Treasury's intention to put off establishment of such a fund by a number of years shows that it is not interested in establishing the fund. She added that the lack of legislative initiative for such a fund tied to Sheshinski Commission legislation on gas and oil is like an uncovered check, and the weak and peripheral segments of society will pay the price.