Minister of Welfare & Social Services Yitzchak Herzog is concerned with the alarming fact that 1.5 million Israelis are in the social services database, receiving assistance of some kind.
Herzog stated 250,000 Israelis need assistance to meet the basic Pesach needs, explaining no one can get by on a minimum wage salary.
Speaking with the prime minister on Shabbos, Herzog called for tripling the pre-Pesach assistance to non-profit organizations assisting the poor from NIS 3 million to NIS 9 million to permit getting the basic to the so many who will not receive assistance ahead of yomtov.
The cabinet on Sunday is expected to establish a fund towards ensuring all Israelis receive daily nutrition, basics, a fund that will work hand-in-hand with the Histadrut, manufacturers and NGOs. According to official statistics, over 20,000 Israelis are joining the ranks of the unemployed monthly, many ineligible for unemployment payments or other assistance. The number of claims for unemployment assistance is up 37% as compared to the same period in 2007 and 2008, amounting to about 2,600 monthly.
Due to firings and debts, Herzog explains the unemployment services in the southern area are collapsing, unable to meet the overwhelming increase in requests for assistance. He adds the alarming trend also is reflected in increase demand for assistance as well as domestic stress and even a noticeable increase in divorce.
(Yechiel Spira – YWN Israel)
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To which there are probably several hundred thousand hareidim being supported by frum charities who aren’t in the governments’ data bases.
Given that Likud and Kadimah (ruling party and opposition party) are both in favor of a “trickle down” approach, it isn’t good for the poor in Eretz Yisrael (while “Reagonomics” worked reasonably well in the US, it won’t work in a country as divided as Israel since the “trickle” doesn’t cross social and religious barriers, so the wealth stays in the secular upper class).