Minister of Communications (Shas) Ariel Atias on Wednesday stated the willingness of Agudat Yisrael at the time to forgo NIS 500 a month in child allowance payments has resulted in an accumulated loss per family of NIS 12,000.

Atias targeted both Agudah and Likud, stating it was the Shas Party which prevented an even larger cut in monthly allowance payments, limiting it to NIS 120 per child.

Atias, who is rapidly becoming a dominant figure in the party, decided to come out and speak his mind, using the Shas-backed weekly Yom L’Yom newspaper as his latest forum.

Atias stressed it was Shas’ unyielding efforts which led to curbing the cuts implemented under then Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu. Today he stated, Shas once again is leading the battle over the monthly child allowance and despite the ongoing investigation against Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, Shas is not willing to permit the current situation to continue.

Atias added, “We launched an election campaign stating “a hungry child does not learn,” and as such, we cannot face voters now with anything less than making good on our commitment. If we do not find the powers that be to be receptive, we will terminate our presence in the coalition. We will wait until the end of the Knesset summer session.”

(Yechiel Spira – YWN Israel)