6—Friday, September 9, 1966
Alignment Accepts Eshkol Economic Plan,
Other Parties Balk as Israel's Woes Mount
JERUSALEM (JTA)—The dom-
inant alignment partners in Pre-
mier Levi Eshkol's government-
Mapai and Ahdut Avoda — have
endorsed separately the same ver-
sion of Finance Minister Pinhas
Sapir's three-year austerity pro-
gram to deal with Israel's eco-
nomic difficulties.
However, the remaining hurdles
to full coalition agreement on the
plan are still formidable.
When the coalition partners
met Wednesday for a general
discussion of the austerity plan,
Mapam was still insisting on a
compulsory loan and heavier
income taxes on higher income
groups. Sapir is strongly op-
posed to a compulsory loan. The
National Religious Party and
the Independent Liberals oppose
both the loan and the proposed
steeply higher income taxes.
Moshe Shapira, interior min-
ister and NRP leader, said before
the meeting that his party gener-
ally supported the Sapir plan but
after many compromises, about
all that was left of it was a pro-
posed cut in cost-of-living allow-
ances to Israeli wage-earners.
He added that the present gov-
ernment was unable to approve a
plan which could deal effectively
with Israel's severe economic
problems and that the plan which
will be eventually approved will
not go to the roots of the problem.
Meanwhile, the ministerial eco-
nomic committee decided to raise
electricity charges by 6 per cent.
The reason given for the steep in-
crease was that the treasury was
no longer able to pay a million-
pound subsidy to the company.
The proposal approved by the
Mapai secretariat and by the
Ahdut central committee would
expand imports by keeping
wages down, by revising work
norms upward and would seek
more efficient use of labor
through worker transfers if nec-
essary. The parties also ap-
proved proposals for increased
taxes on capital gains, and re-
ductions in expense alowance3
to businessmen.
In addition, the two parties
moved to find jobs for 25,000
workers currently unemployed, a
figure which they feared might
reach 50,000 by next year. They
accepted a proposal by Akiva Gov-
rin, chairman of the alignment's
economic committee,' to set up a
special "Unemployment Author-
ity" to seek work for the jobless.
Dismissals of workers have con-
tinued in a number of plants and
factories throughout the country,
following decreases in production
schedules. Efforts are now being
intensified to prevent further dis-
missals on the eve of the High
Holy Days, while a new wave of
unemployment is feared by the
end of this month.
Mapam sources said Israel
should seek "a more just distribu-
tion of the burden of fighting un-
employment." They said this was
the basic reason for Mapam's de-
mand for a compulsory loan as
well as for higher taxation on
middle and higher incomes.
The Tel Aviv secretariat of
Mapai urged immediate govern-
ment action to curb unemploy-
ment in the building trades in
Tel Aviv. Mayor Mordechai Na-
mir told a Tel Aviv branch
meeting that applications for
new building permits were down
almost to zero, and said there
would be severe unemployment
among building workers in Tel
Aviv.
The Mapai branch then en-
dorsed the mayor's demand that
the government carry out a prom-
ise to start slum clearance proj-
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
Jewish Students Insist God Is Alive
but Question Relevance for Today
ects and build housing for young
couples.
T h e Mapai - Ahdut agreement
also provides for continuation by
the government of its education,
housing and social welfare pro-
gram, and for assisting develop-
ment areas hardest hit by Israel's
swelling unemployment; calls for
a balanced budget, aimed at eco-
nomic advancement and for assur-
ing "social justice;" and urges
more efficient investigation of in-
come tax obligations so that "all
sectors of the population" will pay
their required taxes.
The plan calls on labor to be
more "conscious of its responsi-
bilities" and "more fluid" in pass-
ing from one sector of the econ-
omy to another "as circumstances
demand."
STARLIGHT. Pa. (JTA) — A
group of 221 Jewish students par-
ticipating in the annual summer
institute of the Bnai Brith Hillel
Foundation here, was seen to be
in general agreement .that, while
they accept the existence of God,
they have severe doubts as to
whether the Supreme Being has
any meaning for their own exist-
ence.
The students, from 129 American
and Canadian colleges. dismissed ,
the "God is dead" debate as a
"Christian controversy."
The viewpoint of the student par-
ticipants on the "God is dead"
debate was summarized by a Prin-
ceton University junior who said
that American Jewish undergradu-
ates "are all believers, divided be-
tween those who think about it
and those who do not." However,
many of the students questioned in
It calls on the government to
assure stable prices, which would
include supervision of monopolies
and cartels. Under the plan, the
capital gains tax would be in-
creased from 25 to 30 per cent,
while commissions of banks and
insurance companies would be re-
duced by 10 per cent.
Foreign currency allowances for
visits abroad would be cut from
$500 to $350. The plan would give
main emphasis to incentives to
increase exports by tax reduc-
tions and by government subsi-
dies to exporters.
Meanwhile, the cabinet began
discussions of Israel's 1967-68
budget, which reportedly will
reach 5,000,000,000 pounds ($1,670,-
000,000), nearly 10 per cent higher
than the current budget. The addi-
tional income for the expenditures
of the next fiscal year, which
starts April 1, is expected to come
from increased taxation.
Finance Minister Pinhas Sapir
had requested that the Cabinet be-
gin consideration of the new
budget several months earlier
seminars and workshops whether
it was possible to achieve a con-
cept of God acceptable to both mod-
ern man and to Jewish tradition.
The students applauded an ad-
dress by Rabbi Jack Cohen, Hil-
lel director at the Hebrew Uni-
versity in Jerusalem, in which
he challenged current education-
al practices and asserted that
the contemporary Jewish commu-
nity "must catch up with its ar----/
cestors by providing a qual.1.,
of Jewish education based
free inquiry rather than ok..-
schools of indoctrination."
A 19-member faculty of Hillel di-
rectors and guest lecturers guided
the eight-day seminar on whether
"Jewish distinctiveness" has con-
temporary meaning and purpose.
THE BEST IN
SALES AND SERVICE
than in previous years, because of
the changes to be brought about
by the austerity program.
One Israeli economist termed
the threat of business recession
"almost biblical. We've enjoyed
seven fat years since 1959, and
there is every indication we are
facing seven lean years."
The increase in the gross na-
tional product dropped from its
normal 10-12 per cent a year to
7 per cent last year. There are
indications that it may be about
HANK NEWMAN
9 per cent this year.
President
In 1965, fewer autos, refrigera-
tors, gaS stoves and radios were
purchased—a 5 per cent increase,
compared with a normal rise of
20 per cent.
The slowing down of immigra-
tion was blamed partly for the de-
cline in housing demand. Prices
PAUL NEWMAN'S
have shot upward because of the
pressure of costs, especially la-
bor, and of taxes and the reduc-
tion of government subsidies.
855 Oakland, Pontiac — LI 9-6161
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