[Israel] Anti-poverty plan in limbo

From YNet News

Labor party ministers say NIS 4 billion to be earmarked to war on poverty. Prime Minister’s Office: It’s an imaginary sum
Ronny Sofer

War on poverty going bankrupt? While Labor party ministers boast of an anti-poverty plan to the tune of NIS 4 billion (about USD 900 million,) associates of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon put a damper on the plan, saying such sums were imaginary.

“There is no way those sums of money will be approved,” sources at the Prime Minister’s Office said in response to Labor’s festive declarations.

As early elections become a likelier possibility, it appears parliamentarians across the political spectrum may be using the war on poverty to elicit more votes in a country where about 1.5 million people are under the poverty line and one of every three children lives in poverty.

The anti-poverty plan, prepared by Labor party Ministers Isaac Herzog and Shimon Peres, called for designating about two percent of the State budget, or about NIS 4 billion, to a plan that would include large tax benefits for employers who hire new workers, a revolution in professional training, and considerable assistance to the disabled, among other measures.

Meanwhile, Finance Minister Ehud Olmert (Likud) proposed his own plan, prompting Ariel Sharon to order Peres and Treasury officials to join forces and present a joint plan within two weeks. However, the State budget proposal was introduced Tuesday, with Olmert saying he would not breach it by as much as a cent.

'Budget deficit better than human deficit'

Labor party officials say that "We are within the numbers we quoted," referring to approximately 2 percent of the state budget, over NIS 4 billion.

"If 500,000 people in Israel will continue to go to soup kitchens – we will not be in the government," Peres' aides said.

"Better a budget deficit than a human deficit," they added.

Peres himself told Ynet Monday that he is absolutely certain that the prime minister and finance minister will go along with him to implement the plan initiated by himself and the housing minister, based on the plan of former U.S. President Lyndon Johnson in the 1960's.

However, Finance Ministry officials were not willing to obligate themselves to any sum that would be allocated to the plan to fight poverty.

"I heard numbers rolling, NIS 4-5 million. I must say that there is no agreement on these sums and there is no obligation for any number. I am not responsible for this or that number," Olmert said in the Knesset Finance Committee meeting Tuesday morning.

"We are forming the plan as we speak and we will submit it on the determined time," Olmert's aides in the Finance Ministry said, stressing again that they do not intend on changing Israel's fiscal policy as not to shake international faith in Israel’s economy.

Are Peres and Herzog instilling false hopes among Israel's poor? Is this a media spin started by Labor and joined by Sharon and Olmert, in sight of the upcoming elections? Could it be that none of the senior ministers can quote the real sums allocated to the plan to fight poverty, only 10 days before it is to be submitted to Sharon? Indeed, the answer to all those questions may be “Yes.”