‘’We have a very good government because I think we are tackling crucial issues,’’ Israel’s Economy Minister Naftali Bennett told a group of European journalists on a press trip in Israel organized by the Europe Israel Press Association (EIPA) to help media better understand Israel’s complexities and challenges.
The leader of the Habayit Hayeudi (Jewish Home) rigth-of-center and religious party, who won 12 seats in the Knesset, Israel’s parliament, in the January 2013 elections, reminded that Israel has a coalition government with political parties ‘’that are also fully competing.’’
Following the elections, Bennett, who transformed the old national religious NRP party into a more Jewish traditional party, formed a very unlikely ‘’alliance of interest’’ with left-of-center and secular Yesh Atid (There is a future) of ex-tv anchorman Yair Lapid.
‘’It’s a good government in the sense that we are tackling chronic issues that nobody was willing to touch in Israel. Doing unpopular things but that are right.’’ ‘’The best one is happening these very days and it is bringing the ultra-Orthodox community into the Israeli society, primarily into the workforce.’’
25 % of first graders are ultra-Orthodox. ‘’They need to work because the economy doesn’t work when less and less people pay taxes and more and more people pull out money,’’ Bennett says.
Finance Minister Lapid and Bennett differ however a bit on this issue. Lapid is very focused on the army part, to get ultra-Orthodox to serve. ‘’I don’t care about that, though I served in the army quiet a few years ‘’ in an unit called Sayaret Matkal, the equivalent of the SEAL special unit forces in the US.
‘’I care about getting them working. There is a degree of contradiction because the army is a sort of red flag for the ultra-Orthodox. They are afraid, rigthfuly I may said, of a secularization of their kids that go to the army. But I just want them to work.’’
This issue is creating a bit of tension but Bennett believes the bill which is pushed through by a Knesset committee led by a member of his party, Ayelet Shaked, is going to pass. She is a secular woman in a religious party, ‘’a sign which shows that our party was willing to open up.’’
Another big issue, which Bennett calls ‘’his baby’’, is helping Arab women join the workforce. Today only 25 % of Arab women work compared to about 70 % of Jewish women.
This has a lot to do with culture but also to the fact that they live in the Galilee or the Negev were there is less work and there also a degree of prejudice in the Israeli society,’’ explains Bennett, who stresses that ‘’this is a key objective of my own.’’
The Minister set up across the country 12 employment centers dedicatd to Arab women and 63 local representatives in villages. His ministry grant a one-year voucher for vocational studies to any Arab woman who needs that. They will go study software, cooking …. Bennett goal is to double the parrticipation rate of Arab women working. ‘’This is huge for Israel’s future. My vision is to see everyone working together, secular, ultra-Orthodox, religious, Arab, Jews… because the more we work together, the better our economy will be and the better our society will be.’’
The third thing the government dealt with was balancing the budget which was highly unpopular. ‘’We had the biggest budget cut in the history of the country, 40 billion shekels. I think only this government could do something as unpopular.’’
‘’But we are also opening the economy, creating competitions in the sky, in the ports….’’
‘’We are going through a very exciting time in terms of our economy.’’
Israel has a very low unemployùment rate. ‘’We are nearing full employment. Anyone who wants a job will find one and we need good talents,’’ the minister says.
The second big development is Israel’s force in innovation, Bennett stresses. ‘’We are now focusing on five specific ares in economy ‘’where we can do good : water technologies, agriculture and food technologies, alternative energy, cybersecurity and life science. Israeli companies abroad are active in these sectors where the governmnt is increasing its efforts.’’