With the start of the election campaign, columnist Hevron Granvitz published a short post:
""Deri promised that his condition for sitting in the next government is zero VAT on food products. If this indeed happens... write this down: I am going to the Ministry of the Interior and changing my last name to Bozglo.
"They said from today, Hebron will be destroyed.".
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The election campaign is over, the coalition negotiations are over, Aryeh Deri was sworn in, in an emotional moment, as Minister of Economy and Development of the Negev and Galilee - and it's time for Hebron to explain why he's still Granvitz.
In another post he published, he explains:
""With the opening of the election campaign last December and in Aryeh Deri's attempt to ride the social agenda (which he succeeded well), Deri announced that he would not sit in a government that would not abolish VAT on basic necessities.
I didn't believe that the move would come to fruition, I didn't believe the government would give up millions of shekels in revenue, and I didn't believe that Aryeh Deri would sacrifice his life's dream and exchange it for a seat in the opposition for some promise he made and failed to fulfill.
At that time, I published a post on Facebook, in which I pledged that if the move went through, I would change my family name to Bozglo.
To Aryeh Deri's credit, he did not neglect his promise to abolish VAT and fought until the last moment to make it happen.
While he was sitting at the top of the pine tree demanding the abolition of VAT, Bibi presented him with a shaky ladder in the form of 'A committee will be established to examine the abolition of VAT on basic necessities.'.
Aryeh Deri looked at his feet and jumped onto the steps of the ladder that was placed beneath him and stood on a safe shore.
So first of all - it's good for Aryeh Deri that he fought, asked, threatened and achieved the result of 'the committee will examine', that's also good.
Second thing - the promise of 'I will not sit in a government that does not lower the VAT on basic necessities' has not been fulfilled.
It is clear that when two decisions are on the balance - either enter the government even though the VAT promise has not been fulfilled or not enter because the VAT law has not been implemented...
Certainly the right thing was to enter the government, and there is no fault in Aryeh Deri's conduct. It was the right and obvious thing to do.
But, the reality right now is that Shas is in the government, Aryeh Deri is the Minister of Economy, and we... continue and will continue to buy bread and milk and pay VAT for many years to come.
"Therefore, and accordingly, at this stage I am not obligated to my promise to change my family name to Bozglo, I am allowed to continue to proudly bear my family name Granevich - which originated in the town of Złow in Poland.".
