The finance minister is pushing tailor-made tax breaks for West Bank settlers as his party hovers near the electoral threshold
Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, stressed out because opinion polls show his Religious Zionism party barely crossing the electoral threshold, rushed to ply his voter base with gifts. That is, to give settlers in the territories a 7-percent income tax credit, at a total estimated annual cost of 135 million shekels ($48 million, not final). This week he appeared in the Knesset to promote the bill, despite its being a private member's bill (MK Tzvi Succot), and to pressure the lawmakers and the Knesset's legal adviser.