BICOM

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has delayed a vote on the proposed socioeconomic changes recommended in the Trajtenberg report’s draft yesterday due to overwhelming opposition from within the government.

The prime minister came to the decision after failing to convince a majority of government ministers to vote to adopt the recommendations, during hours of discussions on the issue. Netanyahu ended the government meeting without holding a vote on the matter and decided to continue the discussion of the Trajtenberg Committee recommendations in the next government meeting, scheduled for Sunday of next week.

Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz insisted that Netanyahu would eventually get a majority of ministers to vote to adopt the recommendations. Steinitz said in an interview with Channel 2 that the Trajtenberg Committee report provides a solution to Israel’s economic problems, the likes of which no previous government has implemented.

Netanyahu, however, now faces an uphill political battle to convince government ministers to vote in favour of the Trajtenberg report, which has been heavily criticised by protest leaders. Many within the government are seeking to avoid alienating potential voters by supporting a report that fails to encompass the desires of the “social justice” protest movement, and make the far reaching changes many had hoped.

In related news, municipality clerks accompanied by dozens of police and border patrolmen cleared out the last of the tent compounds in Tel Aviv Monday afternoon, signalling what appears to be the end of the campsite phase of the protest movement.