Labor continues to lash out at funding for Jewish communities in Judea, Samaria, and Gaza, demanding that the money go to "under-privileged areas instead." Cabinet Secretary Gideon Sa'ar said that the Labor attempt to compare development towns to Yesha regional councils is artificial and irrelevant, "because regional councils, because of the distances between the towns that comprise them, always receive more funds … I don't recall that the Labor Party ever implemented this change when it was in power, nor did it mention this at its last convention; this whole issue is merely a ploy…" Sa'ar provided an 'example' of Labor's impure intentions:
"In one of the documents they gave us, entitled "Diversion of Funds from Yesha Settlements," they spelled 'Diversion' with the Hebrew letter tuv instead of tet, so that it came out 'Incitement…'"
Yediot Acharonot's Sever Plotzker editorializes today that the Labor Party is
“making a fool of itself by searching for an alibi to quit the government… Mutterings of leaving the government would sound more legitimate if the demand was for a complete overhaul of the budget, or at least the reexamination of cutbacks in the public sector. But Fuad and his friends are not making such demands…they only have one modest request: To have mercy on pensioners, who happen to comprise a large percentage of the Labor Party Central Committee members… Labor prefers to make strange last-minute demands in the budget and use them as camouflage and a substitute for making bold policy statements."
Though it is felt that Labor has already burned most of the ladders down which it could have climbed from its intentions to vote against the budget and quit the government, some leading Likud figures have offered them the option of claiming "national responsibility during these critical times" in order to backtrack. Prime Minister Sharon and Justice Minister Meir Sheetrit are among those who have called upon Labor to go this route.
MK Benny Elon (National Union) said today that the Labor Party's behavior these past two days is "a perfect example of how not to act during a national crisis such as the one we are currently experiencing."
"In one of the documents they gave us, entitled "Diversion of Funds from Yesha Settlements," they spelled 'Diversion' with the Hebrew letter tuv instead of tet, so that it came out 'Incitement…'"
Yediot Acharonot's Sever Plotzker editorializes today that the Labor Party is
“making a fool of itself by searching for an alibi to quit the government… Mutterings of leaving the government would sound more legitimate if the demand was for a complete overhaul of the budget, or at least the reexamination of cutbacks in the public sector. But Fuad and his friends are not making such demands…they only have one modest request: To have mercy on pensioners, who happen to comprise a large percentage of the Labor Party Central Committee members… Labor prefers to make strange last-minute demands in the budget and use them as camouflage and a substitute for making bold policy statements."
Though it is felt that Labor has already burned most of the ladders down which it could have climbed from its intentions to vote against the budget and quit the government, some leading Likud figures have offered them the option of claiming "national responsibility during these critical times" in order to backtrack. Prime Minister Sharon and Justice Minister Meir Sheetrit are among those who have called upon Labor to go this route.
MK Benny Elon (National Union) said today that the Labor Party's behavior these past two days is "a perfect example of how not to act during a national crisis such as the one we are currently experiencing."