Finance Minister and Yesh Atid party chairman Yair Lapid has come out against Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s request for buying a plane for him and the president and for new offices and official residence.
“At the moral level, we are of the view that in these days of belt tightening and tax raises, when the gaps between rich and poor are among the widest in the world, the government of Israel ought to act with modesty, and not take steps that will cause the public to perceive its behavior as divorced from the difficulties of day-to-day life,” Lapid stated on Sunday.
Cost estimates from the Knesset Finance Committee and the Office of the Prime Minister have come up with contradictory conclusions on the economic feasibility of the proposal.
The Olmert administration five years ago approved a plan for new offices and residence for the Prime Minister, but the plan was put aside after Netanyahu took office.