Professor Emanuel Trajtenberg, who heads the state committee addressing the cost of living, is targeted to become the nation’s next finance minister if the Labor/The Movement alliance sets up the next coalition. Trajtenberg has been given the 16th slot on what Herzog and Livni call “The Zionist ticket”.

Herzog sated “for six years the State of Israel has been paralyzed by a prime minister who lacks vision and who does not have time to find a solution for the housing crisis. The public is seeking initiative thought a change in direction”.

In response to the grass roots protests about the high cost of living in the summer of 2011, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu appointed Trajtenberg to head the committee to make recommendations regarding economic measures to overcome the crisis.

Trajtenberg is an economist, chair of the Planning & Budgeting Committee of the Council for Higher Education in Israel. He holds a PH.D. from Harvard University in economics and currently serves in the Tel Aviv University School of Economics.

(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)