For weeks Finance Minister Roni Bar-On has refused to get too involved in efforts to stabilize Israel’s economy, releasing statements the economic crisis which has hit America and Europe will not do the same in Israel.

Today, Wednesday, Bar-On will be presenting his master plan which he hopes will do more than a bit to curb the rapid increase in unemployment in Israel. Many are calling Bar-On’s efforts “too little too late”, criticizing he complacency during recent weeks and months while all signs pointed to a need to prepare the nation for bleak financial realities.

One of Bar-On’s plans includes retraining unemployed high-tech workers as teachers of the sciences. He also supports funding and subsidizing training for construction-related trades to enable Jews to find employment in the industry which today is dominated by Arabs and foreign workers. He is also targeting programs to enable veterans to undergo training and find gainful employment in a number of fields, white and blue collar.

Bar-On is adamantly opposed to increasing the monthly child allowance payments and he is a major advocate for compelling chareidi schools to include mathematics, science and other basic secular subjects in the curriculum to better prepare the chareidi population for the workplace later in life.

The master plan calls on immigration authorities to crack down on the number of illegal foreign workers in Israel.

(Yechiel Spira – YWN Israel)