Haifa Mayor Amram Mitzna, who is running for Labor Party leader, spoke with Arutz-7 today. Polls show that he is well ahead of Binyamin Ben-Eliezer, and tied with or somewhat ahead of MK Chaim Ramon. Mitzna said that he has long called for his party to leave the government coalition, "and if now, three weeks before our internal elections, Fuad [Ben-Eliezer] reaches the conclusion that it must be done now, then fine… The truth is that his attempt - unsuccessful, unfortunately - to dismantle the outposts can also be chalked up to my candidacy; I'm just sorry that it's being done in this manner."
Mitzna said that though he did not bring up the issue at yesterday's Labor convention, "I do feel that budgetary allocations [for] Yesha should be given elsewhere instead. We saw on television last week the report - and I accept it with reservations - on the tremendous amounts that the Yesha regional councils receive."
Labor Party member Shmulik Rifman, Chairman of the Regional Councils Center, does not agree with his party colleagues' criticism of the Yesha towns' budgets, nor with the numbers they present in this issue. "I am against leaving this national unity government," he told Arutz-7 today. "We have to find the way to get down from the tree we've climbed up, and I have given Fuad [Ben-Eliezer] an idea as to how to do this: Money for pensioners can be found by cutting all government ministries, a committee can be set up, and that's it. There's absolutely no reason to go to elections now. It will cost 700 million shekels, it will hurt the economy and the society, and will increase our public bickering at a time when we have to enhance our unity… This is not a time for political games."
Regarding the Yesha budgets, Rifman said,
"Numbers are like 'clay in a potter's hand.' They can be manipulated in any which way, and some people have done this in a very irresponsible manner. I know what's going on in the regional councils, and in Yesha there are a lot of extra problems… We only have ourselves, and we simply cannot allow ourselves to fight all day long - if we do, then what are we doing here in this land?"
Mitzna said that though he did not bring up the issue at yesterday's Labor convention, "I do feel that budgetary allocations [for] Yesha should be given elsewhere instead. We saw on television last week the report - and I accept it with reservations - on the tremendous amounts that the Yesha regional councils receive."
Labor Party member Shmulik Rifman, Chairman of the Regional Councils Center, does not agree with his party colleagues' criticism of the Yesha towns' budgets, nor with the numbers they present in this issue. "I am against leaving this national unity government," he told Arutz-7 today. "We have to find the way to get down from the tree we've climbed up, and I have given Fuad [Ben-Eliezer] an idea as to how to do this: Money for pensioners can be found by cutting all government ministries, a committee can be set up, and that's it. There's absolutely no reason to go to elections now. It will cost 700 million shekels, it will hurt the economy and the society, and will increase our public bickering at a time when we have to enhance our unity… This is not a time for political games."
Regarding the Yesha budgets, Rifman said,
"Numbers are like 'clay in a potter's hand.' They can be manipulated in any which way, and some people have done this in a very irresponsible manner. I know what's going on in the regional councils, and in Yesha there are a lot of extra problems… We only have ourselves, and we simply cannot allow ourselves to fight all day long - if we do, then what are we doing here in this land?"