JERUSALEM (VINnews) — During the course of a media interview with Canadian psychologist and media personality Jordan Peterson, Israel’s prime-minister-elect Binyamin Netanyahu was asked why his extreme economic steps as finance minister in 2003 had been so unpopular and had led him to political obscurity for a number of years.
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Netanyahu answered with his oft-quoted example of a “fat man on top of a thin man”, describing an economy in which a small private sector has to deal with a bloated public sector and a large, growing proportion of the people who are non-productive. In such cases the “thin man” reaches a state of collapse where he cannot continue to hold up the “fat man” who is growing increasingly heavier.
Netanyahu explained that he placed the “fat man” on a diet, cutting government budgets and slashing taxes to the private sector in order to assist the economy. However when describing why he was so unpopular at the time, Netanyahu also mentioned the huge child allocations as one of the key factors affecting the economic problems and said that because “the Bedouin had 60 children, they could drive a BMW in the Negev without working.” He added that “the ultra-orthodox didn’t work, they just had lots of children which the others in the private sector had to pay for.” Netanyahu slashed the child allocations and said that in the short term he was unpopular but “this is what a leader needs to do.”
Netanyahu’s statements were hailed by opposition leaders, with Yair Lapid stating that Netanyahu was right and Avigdor Liberman adding that “the reality has proved that Bibi is a liar and is acting in the opposite way, conceding to Chareidi blackmail in order to evade his trial and endangering Israel’s economic future.”
If you look at Jewish history, talmide chachamim always had jobs to support themselves and their families, while the mother was looking after the children. Nowadays many Haredi women need to do both, and that’s their choice and very special if it works, but no one should think that that’s the frum Jewish tradition.
Is he wrong?
In Afghanistan the Taliban won’t let women work. In frumkeit, the Gedolim want boucherim not to work. Terrible waste of economic power and contribution to society. Core problems that need to be discussed and addressed.
I don’t see any scandal here. He is explaining a practical reality he needed to address in his budget Of course many work, especially today, but then, many didn’t work. A PM needs to budget for it
Well, he exaggerated it but he was basically trying to make a point which had/has truth to it.
This isn’t such a big deal. He’s right about the economic impact of families with a lot of kids and one working parent. However, he should have taken into account that chareidi women usually work. Many of them are paid very little, and so are very dependent on government aid, so what he said is still true.
Torah: ” Six days shalt thou work…….”
Netanyahu is right, and the private sector budget with heavy per-child allocations continues to plague Israel’s economy (although nowadays more frumme work than it used to be). Lapid/Liberman et al are also right that Netanyahu is now cooperating with the frum only because they got him elected and will help him quash the indictments. So everyone is right, and everyone is a hypocrite, but the good news is the frum are now more in control than ever before, as evidenced by the agreements they negotiated to overturn most of the anti-Jewish laws enacted by the Left over the past year. So at least the hypocritical right-leaning government will be iy”h better for us than the hypocritical left-leaning government was. B”H
A custom from early medieval times was for the Diaspora to support small communites who learn Torah in Israel. Then came the State of Israel, and gave financial support Scholars, along with penalizing those who work, by being drafted into the IDF. This reversed a trend amongst many Scholars here in Israel, to combine Torah with “a worldly occupation.”
We have same problem here appx 45% pay taxes and text ho free or collect And that’s why we are in debt
Just like trump it’s better to keep quiet and leiberman should burn in hell
From a secular perspective it’s hard to argue. Of course we know that all sustenance comes from Hashem. Whatever blessings Israel has is due to the Torah and Mitzvos performed in Eretz Yisroel. But when discussing an issue it’s also important to see where the other side is coming from. Even when they’re wrong.
From lapid what do we expect his father said he would send tanks to meah Sharon to take care of the charidim
This is a friend of the chareidim???
The Chareidim contribute a lot to the Israeli economy, however this is irrelevant and one could hold a different viewpoint. But the anti-Semitism that Jews themselves cause by speaking ill of their own people is of immense proportions and is very scary. Of course we can and should condemn criminal behavior even if committed by a Jew, but to lump one sector together and blame them for any woes, economic or otherwise, is absolutely disgusting and dangerous. And Netanhyahu is supposedly a friend of Chareidim…
To all the Bibi worshippers: Eileh elohecha Yisrael!!! Enjoy your worship of the Egel HaZahav (so long as Deri and Gafni and their band of merry men get the Minitstries and $$$ then everythings ok).
He’s not wrong…
“He added that “the ultra-orthodox didn’t work, they just had lots of children which the others in the private sector had to pay for.” ”
The wicked heretic didn’t mention that the Zionists don’t allow the chareidim/Jews to work unless they agree to be shmad/converted to Zionism in the Zionist IDF.
Let the Chareidim/Jews work, as they do elsewhere. Then see how many work or don’t work.
Again whats the contadition? Yes torah is the ikkur, Yes the state values it. Yes charedim don’t belong in the army. And yes charedim oughto work. And lets make that happen
AFRAID TO POST MY COMMENT?
Or
Or maybe
Or perhaps Bibi is wise. Stop tying the army to work. Although them to study Torah while pushing them to work at 30 etc. just like Lakewood which is a great system that straddles both ends. Stop hanging the army over their head which encourages less work. Let them learn but also get the leaders aka rabboinim to encourage more work. Win over us with love
If this is what he really said and what he really meant, then he is a shtik dreq.
There was a newspaper article published about 2 years ago in the Israeli press, I believe, that refuted this 100%. They showed the real reasons why it seemed the “charaydi” weren’t working. They are working however when you have a certain laws in the books that keep them from earning real money, they have to make the money and they also spend it, therefore paying taxes. Those exorbitant European style taxes.
Even bibi realizes within a generation more $ will be spent on holy yeshivas and not on tumadik IDF.