The cabinet is scheduled to convene in special session today, Tuesday, to move ahead on the 2009-2010 state budget. The lights burned well into the night in the Prime Minister’s Office and the treasury, as meetings continued in the hope of finding the magic formula that will earn enough support for the budget to move it through Knesset and pass it into law.
 
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Finance Minister Dr. Yuval Shteinitz are already well-aware that a number of budgetary decrees included in the proposal budget will be scraped, a move necessitated by staunch opposition for major cuts in spending. They met with Histadrut National Labor Federation leader Ofir Eini, who has been threatening to bring down the coalition government. 
 
Eini rejected the major cuts aimed at the lower socioeconomic echelon, stating that if the finance minister turns a deaf ear, he and his followers will make sure the government falls.
 
Eini and his demands aside, there is still fierce opposition from Defense Minister Ehud Barak and Education Minister Gilad Saar, both opposed to proposed cuts, as well as Minister of Public Security Yitzchak Aharonovitch, who warns if the proposed cuts in his ministry are voted in, it will result in the firing of 1,500 policemen and 300 Israel Prison Authority officers.
 
Barak and Netanyahu met until the early hours of the morning, releasing statements the planned cuts in defense spending will be scrapped. Barak explains that with the existential threats faced by Israel, cutting available defense funds could lead to catastrophe. It appears that Barak was successful in eliminating the planned cuts to his ministry.
 
Following intense talks with Eini, it appears an agreement may be in hand, one that has compelled the treasury to back down and agree to major points and demands of the national labor leader.

(Yechiel Spira – YWN Israel)