The government is expected to discuss the budget - A political majority is guaranteed

The government is expected to discuss the budget bill tomorrow and it will approve it. This is the first time that the Israeli government has approved a budget in the last three years. A political majority for a budget is guaranteed after 17 government ministers pledged to support it.
The ministers demand budget increases of NIS 12-14 billion a year, they will criticize various items, the discussion will continue until late at night until Monday morning, but in the end the budget must be approved by the government. It was initially planned to continue the budget discussions on Thursday, but Finance Minister Avigdor Lieberman insisted that the budget be approved by the government by the next day so as not to lose momentum.
The ministers themselves know: if the budget - submitted for government approval after two years and 8 months in which the previous governments did not approve a regular annual budget - is not approved, they can start packing their files. Since no one has yet managed to realize the political, economic, social and other agenda, they will not be in a hurry to give up the Skoda Superb they received from the Government Vehicle Administration.
Lieberman, who is the most powerful and veteran minister in the government, has been handling the state budget since 1996, when he served as director general of the Prime Minister's Office during Benjamin Netanyahu's term. A majority of at least 17 of the 27 cabinet ministers is in favor of the budget, after reaching agreements with party leaders Naftali Bennett, Yair Lapid and Bnei Gantz, which gave Bennett and Lieberman an annual budget of NIS 58 billion.
The demands of the Minister of Health, Nitzan Horowitz, for an additional budget for his office are estimated at NIS 5 billion. The requirements include an automatic increase in the health budget by NIS 1 billion annually, in addition to NIS 950 million per year for the medicine basket, an increase in the number of doctors, adding staff to the health system, shortening internships, establishing 2 hospitals, reducing self-participation in medicines and health services for the elderly and poor.
On Thursday night, the Meretz administration authorized its ministers to oppose the budget if social demands are not met: budgeting public hospitals, setting standards for doctors, nurses and medical staff, regularly increasing the health basket, rehabilitating the mental health system and preparing for the climate crisis. If the demands are not met, 3 Meretz ministers will vote against the budget. The Minister for Regional Cooperation, Issawi Frij (Meretz), demands that NIS 1 billion be included in the current budget, its proportionate share of a multi-year plan at a cost of NIS 5 billion in the Bedouin sector formulated by the ministry.
With the Minister of Transportation and the chairman of the Labor Party, Meirav Michaeli, negotiations were held over the weekend for her demand to add NIS 3 billion to her office budget, which will be NIS 35 billion. Government officials hope that an understanding will be reached with Michaeli, which will enable the support of the three labor ministers in the budget. However, according to officials from the Ministry of Finance, Diaspora Minister Nachman Shai is demanding an additional budget of NIS 300 million. The Ministry of Finance opposes this demand.
With two ministers from the "New Hope" party, the Minister of Construction and Housing, Zeev Elkin, and the Minister of Education, Yifat Shasha Bitton, negotiations are being conducted in light of their demand for an additional NIS 1-3 billion for each of the ministries, and in their opposition to the cuts.
Sources in the Ministry of Education have warned that cuts in the ministry's budget will have an impact on the ability to provide education services to students from disadvantaged backgrounds, such as in the ultra-Orthodox and Arab sectors. The economic plan published on Friday included a NIS 570 million cut in the budget of the Ministry of Education. The cut was explained by the fact that the ministry's budget has more than doubled in the last decade, but the ministry has not become more efficient and Israel's achievements in education have remained low.
This is a cut of close to 1% of the ministry's budget, beyond the already planned horizontal cut of one percent in each of the years 2021 and 2022. Last week, Shasha Bitton and senior officials of her office fought to remove the clause from the economic plan. Thus, a few hours after the plan was published, the Ministry of Education announced that the cut clause would not be brought to the approval of the government. It seems, then, that this was a "goat," that is, a clause that is put into the economic plan so that the ministry would waste its political resources to fight it. In this case, the goal could be to prevent new budgetary requirements from the Ministry of Education.
On the other hand, an agreement was reached with the Minister of Communications, Yoaz Handel, on the budget of his ministry. If the "New Hope" party makes a decision that all ministers will vote against the budget, it will mean that four ministers will oppose.
Lieberman, as stated, wants to submit the state budget and the Arrangements Law for approval by the Knesset in the first reading on September 1. If the budget is not approved by a vote in the second and third readings by November 4, the Knesset will disperse to the elections. That is, the government will have two months to discuss the budget committee on the budget.
The coalition has 61 seats, it is unclear whether MK Amichai Shikli from the right will support the budget, which will anchor the existence of the government at least until June 2023. This is after he opposed the vote to form the government. The joint that is in opposition. To do so, they will have to meet its demands for increased budgets for the Arab sector and recognition of unrecognized localities. According to estimates, these are billions that have already been promised to the PM for the benefit of the Arab sector.
As for the lack of criticism poured by finance officials on the agreements reached between Bennett and Lieberman with Ganz, these did not go over Lieberman's head. As Minister of Defense until the end of 2018, he did support most of the demands of the defense system, sometimes contrary to the position of the Budget Division.