“There is no Ministry of Agriculture in Israel, but there is the Ministry of Farmers. There is no senior employee there who does not have a conflict of interest,” according to Finance Minister Avigdor Lieberman at Calcalist and Kessem’s capital market conference. “I agree that the contribution of fruits and vegetables and agricultural produce to the cost of living is very high. Two months ago fruit prices dropped by 18.5% and now they have gone up and we need to understand why.”
Lieberman lays the blame on a body called plant protection. “This is a unit for blocking imports. They managed to discover anti-Zionist cockroaches that can be imported anywhere in the world because they do not harm the British or the French, but they do harm the Zionists,” Lieberman scolded and added, “Fruit prices jumped because of seven products – avocados and bananas that became more expensive by 40% and mangoes and lemons But the same bananas that are imported from Morocco to France and England cannot be imported to Israel because the cockroach only harms the State of Israel. This unit must be dismantled and rebuilt and this is a task for the next term. Oded Forer is trying to fix this and the legal advisor of the Ministry of Agriculture is stopping because she is part of the agricultural lobby We wanted to import a large quota of honey and fish and the Ministry of Economy stands on its hind legs and does not approve.”
Lieberman also said, “The tax on fish is stuck in the Ministry of Economy because of pressures. When you are in a narrow government, any Knesset member can overthrow it. Even Ram Ben Barak and others, all our efforts were torpedoed by the coalition.”
What happens with the opening of the import reform?
“The Ministry of Health is stopping any reform. We could have reformed the import of perfumes and toiletries already in June. But the Minister of Health stood on the back foot and I hear voices from there that they do not have enough standards and are not being paid enough, so they are not organizing for January 1. This is a move to torpedo the reform of toiletries And the defense costs twice as much as any reasonable country in the European Union, which is intolerable.”
Despite the attempts, you still did not manage to score on the issue of centralization in the food world
“We have been in the Ministry of Finance for a year, unemployment was at its peak and so was the deficit. We went through two waves of corona and the Russia-Ukraine war and ended up with a growth of 8.2% and zero deficit and unemployment. Rome was not built in a day and the most problematic thing is governmental instability. It is impossible to plan long-term projects. We faced with a more impossible reality than many countries in the world.”
The state’s incredible figures do not reassure the public. People are feeling the inflation
“Very high inflation is a problem. There are two countries in the world where inflation is lower than ours – Japan and Switzerland. We have the highest natural increase, so inflation of 5.2 is reasonable. Electricity prices are half of Germany and 70% cheaper than the global average. We try to do everything to soften the blow in an era of global crisis. Britain is over 10%. I saw the speech of the third Iron Lady who spoke only about economic issues. It crosses the world and especially the advanced Western world. We are in a better position compared to them. I believe in numbers and facts. In the months of May July The people of Israel have not reached such a level of consumption since the destruction of the Second Temple.
In the housing sector, did you expect there to be a decrease?
“I am not disappointed. In two quarters the Central Bureau of Statistics announced that in each quarter there were 20,000 construction starts with an annual rate of 80,000 which is an annual record and is the rate we want. At the rate of growth we must at least 70,000 and for three years there have been no satisfactory starts here. There are facts and there is psychology And there is communication. In addition to that, there is an increase in the population. We received 50,000 immigrants and we will receive many immigrants because of the war between Ukraine and Russia. We did the maximum possible and if we continue at the rate of 80,000 units per year it will be an improvement. I talked about such a rate and no one believed.”
What is your biggest miss as Minister of Finance and what would you like in the next term?
“There is no failure, because what I was able to achieve this year with minimalist stability and with many difficulties in the coalition. In the next term I would like to be finance minister again. There is no reason for a civil service commission and a commissioner for labor relations, and they need to be united. Everything is under the treasury and this will save time and bureaucracy. Every We introduced the subject of professional training to the Ministry of Economy and saved a lot of difficulties and this proves itself. The war against bureaucracy in all kinds of creatures such as plant protection must continue.”
Regarding the budget, Lieberman said, “The ongoing budget is a very big challenge. Starting January 1, over NIS 20 billion will enter circulation. The most important thing is governmental stability. We cannot continue like this. A prime minister must have stability for two years and not be hung on the finger One way or another of a single MK and not wars of survival and not to punish the citizens of the country in the elections. It takes a minimum of two years to organize.”
Did your relationship with the ultra-Orthodox get a divorce?
“I didn’t promise to stop everything. The war among the ultra-Orthodox is difficult today because of the story of the core studies. When they don’t study math and English, the student only has a path to kollel and not integration into the labor market, and this is critical for us. The secular state education has become a minority. The mainstream in the country is less than half and this should be a concern We must bring both sectors to the labor market. We must improve the education in the sectors. 60 thousand Abrakhs do nothing and do not work. If you have not become a great rabbi or a halachic judge or a litigator, there is no reason that from the age of 29 until retirement age he will sit in the kollel and receive all the supports And the allowances. It costs us half a billion shekels a year.”