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32 —Friday, April 5, 1985
,
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS -
Sam, Formerly of Diamond Bakery
NEWS
would like to wish everyone a
Happy & Healthy
PASSOVER
Economic Crisis Sparks
Debate Among Coalition
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Jerusalem (JTA) — A glimmer
of good economic news that
emerged with the March statistics
just published in Israel failed to
quell the bitter verbal battle
being waged within the unity co-
alition government over the latest
economic measures.
The principal antagonists are
Deputy Premier and Housing
Minister David Levy, a rising
power within Likud's Herut fac-
tion, and Finance Minister Yit-
zhak Modai, a Likud Liberal
whose across-the-board price
hikes less than a week before
Passover stirred Levy's wrath.
Labor ministers and party offi-
cials have joined the fray.
The Cabinet last Sunday ap-
proved a new economic package to
replace one in effect since
January which was not working.
It calls for a round of wage and
price increases, to be followed by a
two month freeze. The ministers
left the timing to the Treasury
and Modai, arguing that the gov-
ernment could no longer bear the
strain of price subsidies, put the
hikes into effect as of midnight
last Sunday.
He made the move despite pleas
by about a dozen fellow ministers
to hold off until after Passover, or
at least until after tonight's Seder
(there is no second Seder in Is-
rael).
Levy promptly took up the
cudgels for the consumers. He
spoke Sunday of distraught
housewives rushing to the super-
markets the previous night to
stock up before the price rises took
effect.
He spoke Monday of house-
wives trying to prepare for the
holidays confronted by 20 percent
increases in the price of virtually
all goods and services. They are
spending what remains of their
families' last wage packet, he
said. March wages were paid
Monday.
Levy blasted the Treasury as
unfeeling and insensitive. He
broadened his attack to include
the entire unity government
which he claimed has failed to
cure the economy and is in grave
danger of dissolution. His re-
marks drew angry rebuttals from
Laborites Moshe Shahal and Gad
Yaacobi, the ministers of energy
and infrastructure and economic
planning respectively, who ob-
served that it was the previous
Likud government that created
the economic mess.
Uzi Baram, Labor Party Secre-
tary General, publicly challenged
LeVy this week to propose for-
mally to his Herut faction's Cen-
tral Committee that Likud secede
from the unity government.
MOdai, speaking in his own de-
fense, said it was quite impossible
to cure Israel's long-standing eco-
nomic ills in the six-seven months
of the unity regime. He said he
would be happy indeed if the
economy could be put right in two
years.
Modai and his Treasury aides
— and optimists of all political
'persuasion — took some solace
from figures released Monday by
the Central Bureau of Statistics.
They showed that in March — for
the first time in many months —
the Treasury did not print new
money. Moreover, Israel's foreign
currency reserves declined last
month by only $55 million, a
much smaller decline than in
previous months.
Modai said today that these fig-
ures do not mean the economy has
turned the corner. But they are
not entirely coincidental indicat-
ing his policies have had some ef-
fect.
Safe Deposits
Jerusalem (JTA) — An alert
passer-by was credited last week
with averting an explosion out-
side a Jerusalem bank. Police
sappers were summoned to the
Bank Hapoalim branch of Hebron
Road in the Talpiot section after
the passer-by spotted a
suspicious-looking parcel at-
tached to a bicycle that was pro-
pped against a wall of the bank.
They found a relatively small exp-
losive charge in a nylon bag which
was safely dismantled.
HOLIDAY GREETINGS
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