Israel Matzav

Moshe Feiglin finds NIS 453 billion

As part of Monday night's budget debate (the budget barely passed a first reading)  Moshe Feiglin spoke and announced that he has found NIS 453 billion that have disappeared from Israel's treasury in the nearly 20 years since the Oslo Accords were signed. As you read this, please keep in mind that what Feiglin is doing is comparing Israel's budgets for the last 20 years to the 26 years before the Oslo Accords were signed (1967-93), during which these items in the budget were not necessary or spent.

Feiglin was forced to stop in the middle, but here's what I got from it.

86 billion shekels in Israeli government transfers to Gaza in 20 years
28.5 billion additional shekels for General Security Service protection since Oslo was signed
13.7 billion shekels for deploying border police in Judea and Samaria since Oslo was signed (they weren't needed there before)
87 billion additional shekels for increased IDF deployment in Judea and Samaria since Oslo was signed
68 billion shekels in additional security expenses for restaurants, malls etc. since Oslo was signed (there were no suicide bombings in Israel before Oslo was signed)
20 billion shekels for roads that detour around Arab villages since Oslo was signed (there was no need for them before)
4.7 billion for building the separation walls since Oslo was signed (there was no need for them before)
3.5 billion shekels in compensation to families of murdered terror victims
129 billion shekels for Operation Defensive Shield

This also does not begin to count the number of lost work days or the cost to the economy in lost tourism in the last 20 years. But the Left continues to blame the country's financial woes on the Haredim and the 'settlers.'

Let's go to the videotape (sorry, Hebrew only). I'll have another comment after the video.



Mrs. Carl and I were married in Israel in 1981. The day after the wedding I rented a car because we had way too many people to see without a car during the five days after the wedding that we were in Israel (we got married on Tuesday afternoon, the last celebration was Sunday night and if I recall correctly, we left on Sunday night). One of our sheva brachoth celebrations was in a town in Samaria which I will not name. We drove out of Jerusalem and through Ramallah to that town. People were afraid we got lost and came looking for us. But everything was fine. The car was unprotected. No one threw stones at us or shattered our windows. Sure, there were terror attacks before Oslo. But they did not happen anywhere near as frequently and were nowhere near as deadly as was the case here until the IDF was sent back into Judea and Samaria in 2003 (1994-2003).

And if the IDF were to God forbid leave Judea and Samaria, that level of terror and worse would likely God forbid return.

Labels: Israeli economy, Judea and Samaria, Moshe Feiglin, Oslo accords, Palestinian terrorism

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 10:15 AM