It\'s the hareidim against the young couples. At least that\'s how some people are painting the latest political budget skirmish, in which Knesset Finance Committee Chairman MK Yaakov Liztman (United Torah Judaism) is preventing the transfer of money for home mortgages until the budgeted funds for yeshivot are forthcoming. Thousands of young couples are thus unable to buy a home as of today. On the other hand, thousands of married yeshiva students have not received their monthly allocations of only several hundred shekels.
In any event, as Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Finance Minister Silvan Shalom try to find six billion shekels to cut from the national budget, it is clear that the budget will not be ready by Jan. 1, 2002.