Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu defined the weekly Cabinet meeting Sunday as "a historic day in the work of the government,” after ministers approved two decisions intended to boost Israel's growth and prosperity, and a third designed to bolster security.
The three decisions were approved after extensive staff work, including dozens of discussions and Sunday's five-hour Cabinet meeting.
The first of the decisions was the approval for a new draft law for the reform of Israel's complicated planning and construction procedures. The government promised that the reform would “shorten the wearying bureaucratic process that Israelis and contractors must currently undergo” to carry out construction on any scale. It also defined the reforms as “an internal lever for economic growth.”
“Planning and construction reform is one of our main opportunities to bring about growth,” the Prime Minister said at the cabinet session. At present, he added, "The public encounters many difficulties and bureaucratic obstacles.” The steps approved Sunday, he explained, complemented reforms instituted earlier in transportation and in the Israel Lands Administration.
“We have devoted long days and nights to this reform and we have made progress on issues such as development, increasing the supply of apartments, maintaining the environment and reducing gaps,” Netanyahu said. “Now there will be clear and fully transparent criteria."
No mention of the freeze
Netanyahu chose not to mention that at the very same time that the government approved easing construction procedures, a ten-month freeze prohibits construction for Jews in the biblical heartland of Judea and Samaria, and the Defense Ministry has begun tearing down construction starts that it deems to be in violation of that decree.
The second decision hailed by Netanyahu was a new plan to woo Israeli scientists and technicians who live abroad, and convince them to return to Israel.
The third decision Sunday was the approval of the construction of a ground barrier along 240 kilometers of the Israeli-Egyptian border.