(Communicated by the Prime Minister's Media Adviser)
At the weekly Cabinet meeting today (Sunday, 5 July 2015):
1. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made the following remarks:
"I would like to discuss four issues: The nuclear talks, ISIS, Greece and also gas.
"It seems that the nuclear talks in Iran have yielded a collapse, not a breakthrough. The major powers' concessions are increasing. The deal being formulated will pave Iran's path to the production of very many atomic bombs and it will also channel to Iran hundreds of billions of dollars that will serve its aggression and terrorism campaigns in our region and around the world. This is a bad deal. It is not less bad – in my opinion it is worse – than the deal with North Korea that led to a nuclear arsenal in North Korea. But this is both a non-conventional threat, and a very large conventional threat, against Israel, the countries of the region and the world.
We again send our condolences to the Egyptian government and people that are fighting ISIS, our common enemy and that of humanity as well. We are monitoring all the events and are taking all necessary measures. Among others, today we understand – of course – the importance of the security fence we built on the Sinai border, which prevents, or renders very difficult, ground infiltrations by ISIS and other terrorist elements. We built a similar fence on the Golan Heights against ISIS and other terrorist elements there, and, as you know, we have also started to build a security fence on our eastern border.
Prof. Eugene Kandel will brief us today on developments in Greece. The Greek issue is, first of all, a Greek issue, and we hope that Greece will find ways to rescue itself from this chronic crisis. We wish them only the best. In this briefing, it will become clear that GDP per capita in 2003 was bigger in Greece than it was in Israel. We enacted a series of reforms to control expenditures and reforms to open markets to competition – and as a result of this, our GNP per capita has risen by 50% while Greece's, to my regret, has stayed the same, as it was. We grew by 50% and they did not grow.
I think that the Greek story has many implications for the Israeli economy. We undertook a correct policy, very difficult, not populist, anti-populist, and as result we have arrived to where we are today. Of course, this has implications for the fourth issue – gas.
We will not capitulate to populism. We must extract this gas. We must find the right balance between the needs of the Israeli economy and the need to ensure both additional investments and competition. I think that there is much disinformation. I asked the Energy Minister to present the data he showed me yesterday regarding gas prices in Israel as opposed to those in [other] OECD member states.
We wish Greece success, but we are responsible for the success of Israel. We will not take the populist road. We will do what we must in order to continue to move the Israeli economy forward and to ensure a continuous supply of gas to the Israeli economy. No other interest will influence us; we will not allow it to influence us."
National Infrastructures, Energy and Water Minister Dr. Yuval Steinitz addressed the Cabinet on the gas issue.
2. Pursuant to Article 5 of the 2002 Israel Security Agency Law, the Cabinet appointed the members, and defined the responsibilities of, the ministerial committee on Israel Security Agency affairs.
3. Pursuant to Article 31d of
Basic Law: The Government, the Cabinet decided to transfer the Conversion Unit from the Religious Services Ministry to the Prime Minister's Office.
4. Pursuant to Article 31d of
Basic Law: The Government, the Cabinet decided to transfer the Rabbinical Courts from the Justice Ministry to the Religious Services Ministry.
5. The Cabinet abrogated its 2 November 2014 decision regarding regional conversion courts.