Yair Lapid: Why can we not cut one time from the allowances of the orthodox?

Chairman of the Yesh Atid party, Yair Lapid, appeared today (Tuesday) in the Sderot Conference held this year for the elections.


Lapid referred to the issue of economics and said: "All sectors and communities sit on the back of a workhorse, a workhorse growing thinner, a workhorse whose steps are slower, and a workhorse whose ribs are protruding more and more. This whole business sits on a workhorse called the 'Israeli middle class'.

"Every time one of the sectors gets himself something, another brick is placed on the back of the horse. The orthodox got themselves billions for construction in the settlement of Charish – the cost of an apartment for a son of a horse costs 128 salaries; an outpost outside the settlements in Judea and Samaria gets its own bypass - the horse pays eight shekels for each cubic meter of water which costs to bring it to his house less three shekels; IEC workers get free electricity – the horse finds out that since last August electricity prices have increased by 20% and pays over a thousand shekels every month, hundreds of thousands of healthy people are not working and living off allowances? - No problem, we will increase fuel prices for the workhorse.

"Why is it always the middle class? Can we not cut the allowances of the orthodox for once? Can we not cut the settlements by even a penny? You raise taxes n the middle class, but you won't cut transportation subsidies leading to settlements that in no future agreement will be part of Israel? Do you know how to cut in other places other than the food of your workhorse?"

Finally Lapid went on to focus on the ultra-Orthodox, and said we must integrate the orthodox into the workforce: "The primary tool is integration of orthodox, especially orthodox men, into the Israeli labor market. According to research, a combination of orthodox in the workforce, in a rate similar to that of the secular, will bring to the addition of 2% to the GDP, which is 15 billion annually.

"Anyone who has travelled to Brooklyn can see that the orthodox are working for a living. They are no less Jewish because of this, they are no less religious because of this, and they just know that if they do not provide for themselves and their children, no one else will."

"Don’t let anyone tell you that this proposal is anti - haredi. How can it be anti - haredi if we ask them to do exactly what we ask of ourselves? Torah and labor is one of the tenets of Judaism." Any Torah that is not combined with labor ends in idleness which leads to misdemeanor, said the sages."

'בחדרי' גם ברשתות החברתיות - הצטרפו!