Netanyahu "pours money from helicopters": What grant will every Israeli citizen receive?

July 15, 2020   

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared this evening (Wednesday) that he intends to provide citizens with a special financial grant, as part of dealing with the Corona crisis. This is the university that allows you to study from anywhere and at any time convenient for you. ""Citizens of Israel, we are in the midst of summer, but the clouds of Corona are covering the clear skies in many countries around the world. The second wave, which we always talk about, has already reached us. We are fighting it with determination, we are fighting it with unity. The line that guides us is taking health measures and at the same time - economic measures. Health measures that will help preserve your lives, your health, citizens of Israel, and economic measures that will ease the distress that many of you are facing. I hear your distress, you are not alone. As I said at the beginning of the week, money came in today for the self-employed and business owners. 380 thousand people received the grant today. The average is not dozens of shekels, the average is 4,700 shekels per person. And about 130 thousand people received a grant of 7,500 shekels. We promised, the Minister of Finance and I, - and we delivered. This is the first thing. Tonight I am announcing a complementary step that we decided on: additional economic support for all citizens of Israel. I say 'additional' because this is a step that is added to the economic plan that we presented to you a week ago, and to the economic steps that we took in April-May. By the way, according to the Central Bureau of Statistics, they have already taken effect, and hundreds of thousands of Israelis have been added to the labor market. But here's what we are adding: a family of two parents with one child will receive a NIS 2,000 grant, a family with two children will receive NIS 2,500, a family with three children or more will receive NIS 3,000 grant, everyone else - NIS 750 per person. That is, all other citizens over the age of 18 will receive NIS 750 per person. For example, a soldier, a student, a pensioner - each will receive NIS 750. Why are we giving this money? We need to get the economy moving, people are sitting at home, they are not consuming. When we give them this money - they consume. It encourages consumption. They are going to buy. As soon as they go to buy – businesses expand, they need workers. Instead of shrinking – they expand. In other words, this money encourages consumption, and it encourages employment. It will move the wheels of the economy faster. That's how the economy works, you need to move a wheel that moves a wheel, that moves a wheel. By the way, I'm telling you, to encourage consumption, buy domestically produced goods. I'm an advocate of the free market and the global economy, I say buy domestically produced goods, Blue and White. That's fine, Benny Gantz agrees. Buy domestically produced goods, use this money to move the wheels. Now, after the approval of the plan, we need to understand that most Israeli citizens will receive this money within days through the National Insurance mechanism. But, we need to pass it, first we need to make the decision. I'm sure I'll get the support of my son and other ministers to pass the plan in the government, but it's not clear that we won't have to go to legislation. I hope not. We'll look for ways to get around it, because it's still some time away. I hope we can settle for a government decision, but if it is still necessary to enact this grant, I expect all factions in the House to support it, so that we can transfer the money to you, the citizens of Israel, quickly, and the emphasis is on speed. If we start arguing now about criteria, about distinctions, about why some get it and some don't, it will take a long time. I hope not months, but weeks. We will not get out of this. I want to tell you, you, the citizens of Israel, you need this money now for the reasons I said. There are also people who don't exactly fit into one category or another. Yesterday, in a team of advisors that I maintain with government ministers and economic experts from Israel and the world, Prof. Feldman, a professor of economics, said: 'It is better that in two years we look back and regret that we gave too much, than that we look back and cry that we didn't give enough.' I read an article in the IMF - the International Monetary Fund, who think like me. I said that we should give exactly to these and not to those, and not to those with abilities, and to those with limited abilities. They say: We are changing our minds, we now need universal support for everyone to get the wheels moving and so that no one falls through the cracks, and at the same time focus on those with special needs, and yes, it will cost more money. But now this is what is needed. I am not the only one saying this, the most advanced economists in the world are saying this. Several countries have done it, for example Japan and South Korea. This is not an invention, this is not a whim. We need to get things moving now, and I am telling you this as a supporter of the free economy, which I have done for decades, especially in the major reforms that we have brought about, we have got our economy moving to a state where we can do it. On a bad day we are ready, and that is what we are doing here too, this is not the end of the story. We will bring more programs: more programs of direct financial aid, and of incentives to restore the economy. We will provide you, the citizens of Israel, with as much economic certainty as necessary, throughout the entire pandemic. That's one thing. Now, in addition: I have instructed to bring additional steps within 48 hours that will help us flatten the curve of the disease. We made quick and good decisions in the first wave, they brought us to an excellent position. Now we need to continue to take decisive steps to get back there, and to succeed even more. I tell you, my friends, you hear me - it's in the hands of all of us, all citizens of Israel. The secular and the ultra-Orthodox - who I know have many problems and my heart goes out to them, the Jews and the Arabs, the Druze and the Circassians, the leftists and the rightists - together. Everyone, everyone together. We must. It's in the hands of all of us. We are doing everything to avoid a full lockdown, but in order to avoid a full lockdown, I need your full cooperation, the citizens of Israel, in following the guidelines, so that we can succeed together. We must turn the Ministry of Health guidelines into a way of life, as long as the coronavirus is with us. You leave the house, you put on clothes - you leave the house, you wear a mask. Change your lifestyle, because it ensures that we succeed. I am working with the government ministers, and with the experts I described, economic and health experts, both from the country and from abroad, to prepare a long-term plan for the safe opening of the economy, to allow us to deal with the corona as long as necessary. Six months, a year, even more than a year. But I repeat and emphasize that the fundamental condition for success is the continued cooperation on the part of you, the citizens of Israel. Be careful to wear masks, be careful to keep your distance, be careful to practice hygiene - washing your hands. Do not be tempted to circumvent the instructions in one way or another, because you will endanger your own life and the lives of the people dear to you. I want to say something else, I just heard of a 30-year-old American guy who died, infected in a major corona event and before he died he went out and his last words were, I read: "I thought it was a conspiracy, but I was wrong." The conspiracy industry exists in Israel, it's simply unbelievable. I hear about a public representative calling for civil disobedience. I want you to understand: Israel is a free democracy. Freedom of expression and protest is reserved for every person and every group, certainly in a time of such economic hardship. But the coup, linking politics to Corona and the cancellation of responsibility and the cancellation of the rules – this is a real danger. People get infected because they don't follow the rules, in these demonstrations, and then infect others. It's simply a disaster. We are in the 'days between the Egyptians', but what we have seen on the streets in recent days – we forget that. We ignore the questions of reservations and responsibility, and we saw not just any protest, it's legitimate. We saw violence against police officers and against citizens. This violence deserves every condemnation, and there is no place for elected officials to tell people to violate health guidelines. No one, from any side in politics, has the right to do this. I tell you, we must not talk about civil disobedience, we must not go to gratuitous hatred, we must not go to fratricidal hatred. We remember these days what happened to our people in ancient times, when fratricidal hatred and gratuitous hatred ruled the roost. We must not go there. We need to act in exactly the opposite way, we need to deepen the unity between us, we need to protect the home. I believe that with joint forces, we will fight Corona and defeat it." The Civil Corona Cabinet's response to the financial distribution plan: "This is not a plan but a illogical distribution of money. Why, for example, should the 131,000 millionaires living in Israel receive NIS 3,000, while hundreds of thousands of families are declining to the point of starvation? Anyone who has not been financially harmed would prefer to help desperate families instead of mortgage the future of our children in debt. There is no job creation here. There is no help here for those affected by Corona. "Instead of handing out vouchers and credits on the deck of the Titanic, start closing security doors and steering clear of the iceberg. Where is the projection? The system for cutting off infections? Increasing testing capacity? We call on the government to come to its senses, establish a system to eradicate the coronavirus pandemic, and build a real plan to restore the livelihoods of Israeli citizens.".