This is populism at is best, or worst.
There are some exemptions for new immigrants and the handicapped, but the bottom line is that almost everyone looking for a home in central Israel for 1.6 million shekels will be wasting time. There aren’t more than three or four thousand available. The proposal allows for some people who don’t meet the qualifications to by a tax-free home if it does not cost more than 950,000 shekels, which will buy you a tent in metropolitan Tel Aviv and a small home elsewhere – maybe.
Amid the roars in the Knesset and the media Monday, Likud Knesset Member accused Lapid of trying to force a crisis so that he can head a new coalition.
Yisrael Beitenu said it won’t back a new coalition and that it is against new elections, but it helped create the crisis by stopping debate in a Knesset committee on the zero VAT bill Monday because Lapid has not agreed to the language of Lieberman’s bill for stating that Israel is a Jewish state.
Meanwhile, Livni has made herself look like a Bolshevik idiot by pushing for law that would in effect ban the freebie and pro-Netanyahu Yisrael HaYom newspaper, owned by American casino magnate and Republican party sugar daddy Sheldon Adelson.
With all of the Knesset Members on the rampage, Netanyahu called for an urgent meeting of the Likud caucus.
Perhaps he would dramatically decide on new elections? Or perhaps he would fire a couple of trouble-making coalition ministers, such as Lapid and Livni?
We will never know because Netanyahu then turned around and canceled the meeting.
Not to be left out of the jungle, Bennett said the coalition will disintegrate if the Knesset does not pass the bill defining Israel as a state of the Jewish People.
The bill was to be voted on by a committee on Monday, but Livni suddenly pulled out the rug from under Bennett’s feet and postponed the debate.
The funniest – or perhaps saddest – part of this free-for-all is that all polls show that if new elections were held today, Netanyahu, Bennett, and Lieberman would come out on top but the ultimate numbers for a coalition government would not change very much.