Cabinet meeting (file)
Cabinet meeting (file)Israel news photo: Flash 90

The Cabinet will vote today (Monday) on the main tenets of the Trajtenberg Committee report, despite the objection of Shas, Yisrael Beitenu (Israel is Our Home) and the Independence faction to holding the vote.

Shas and Yisrael Beitenu want a more prolonged period for discussion of the report's recommendations and its shortcomings, and agree with the protest organizers, who claim that Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu is staging a political ambush by holding a quick vote before enough public debate has been held.

Shas Chairman Eli Yishai stated Sunday that the Trajtenberg Report is an "incomplete" one. "It says nothing about the weak layers – the ones who can't even start off the month – and there is no mention of public housing," Yishai said.

Defense Minister Ehud Barak (Independence) also opposes holding the vote now, and wants the budget reopened for debate, so that more of the protesters' demands can be met. At the same time, he is opposed to the deep cut in defense spending that implementation of the committee's recommendations entails.

The Trajtenberg Committee was formed following summer-long tent protests that received free and intensive public relations from Israel's press. The organizers, believed by nationalist skeptics to be a front for leftist politicians pulling the strings, rejected the Trajtenberg report.