New Israel finance minister to bring more Orthodox Jews into workforce

Reuters | Tel Aviv

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com

Israel’s likely new finance minister, Avigdor Lieberman, said on Thursday that economic growth and raising the number of ultra-Orthodox Jews in the workforce would be his main goals.

Lieberman’s nationalist Yisrael Beitenu and seven other parties reached a coalition agreement on Wednesday night that would unseat Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu if it is ratified by parliament. “This coalition will focus mainly on economic issues,” Lieberman, a former defence minister, told Israel’s Channel 13.

He said one major challenge would be to bring Israel’s “unreasonable” budget deficit under control. Another way to bring ultra-Orthodox men into the labour force - currently only around half of them work, the others are devoted full-time to religious studies and rely on government allowances and handouts from donors. “We will do everything to provide them an education and enable them to learn a profession and stand on their own two feet, as opposed to charity and all the stipends,” he said.