(Communicated by the Prime Minister's Media Adviser)

At the weekly Cabinet meeting today (Sunday, 10 March 2013):

1. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made the following remarks at the start of the weekly Cabinet meeting:

"Apparently, this will be this Cabinet's last meeting. I would like to thank the ministers for their excellent work over the past four years. These were four years of continuous action, of setting goals and achieving them. I think that with the perspective of time, this Government will be remembered as one of the governments that achieved more than almost any other in the history of the State of Israel. The achievements are many, they are all-embracing. We will take a moment and discuss them during this meeting, but I think that we have led the State of Israel to a situation in which it is more secure, more prosperous, and has made more progress in all the areas in which we have been active. I think that this is our foremost goal; to lead the country to a better situation that the one in which we received it, and there is no doubt that this was done.

We did all of this while the world around us was changing for the worse. The regional situation is changing for the worse. The global economy is wobbly and unstable, and the State of Israel, in this sense, is in a better situation. We still face very great challenges; of course, in lowering the cost of living and housing, in equality in sharing the burden, and above all, the major security challenges, there are no other words, the major security challenges that are piling up around us. We will, of course, need to deal with these in the next government.

I expect that the ministers in the next government will take your actions as an example, ministers and deputy ministers. Your work will serve as an example for the next government and if we act with the same focus, the same cooperation, we will, in the next government, I am sure, be able to overcome the challenges that we face."

The ministers described the achievements of their ministries.

Prime Minister Netanyahu thanked Cabinet Secretary Tzvi Hauser and his staff, Prime Minister's Office Director General Harel Locker and all PMO personnel for their work during the Government's term in office.

2. In the context of International Women's Day, Deputy Minister Gila Gamliel and Minister Limor Livnat, who chairs the ministerial committee on advancing the status of women, briefed the Cabinet on the advancement of women in various spheres.

3. Public Security Minister Yitzhak Aharonovitch and Public Security Ministry Director General Rotem Peleg briefed the Cabinet on the ministry's activities in 2009-2013.

4. Interior Ministry Population and Migration Administration Director Amnon Ben-Ami briefed the Cabinet on his agency's activities in 2009-2013.

Interior Ministry Local Authorities Administration Director Mordechai Cohen briefed the Cabinet on his agency's activities in 2009-2013.

5. The Cabinet discussed payments to those civil service retirees who are barred from certain types of work for a period of up to one year after retiring.