{"id":647701,"date":"2026-10-16T00:46:09","date_gmt":"2026-10-16T00:46:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/647701\/"},"modified":"2026-10-16T00:46:09","modified_gmt":"2026-10-16T00:46:09","slug":"yaron-zelekha-slams-benjamin-netanyahu-over-israels-cost-of-living","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/647701\/","title":{"rendered":"Yaron Zelekha slams Benjamin Netanyahu over Israel&#8217;s cost of living"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"article-paragraph-section article-body-paragraph\">\u201cThe reason Bibi attacks me is that he knows that once I become finance minister, the public will realize that life here could have been cheaper over the past twenty years,\u201d Zelekha said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-paragraph-section article-body-paragraph\">He added, \u201cBibi sold the economy to monopolies and extortionists, and I will take it back. The choice isn&#8217;t &#8216;Bibi or not Bibi&#8217;; it is between the alliance of capital and power and your children.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-paragraph-section article-body-paragraph\">Zelekha also challenged Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and former prime minister Naftali Bennett to a debate on economic policy, arguing that &#8220;politicians beholden to tycoons who finance their election campaigns would be unable to tackle the cost of living.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf anyone gets in my way, I will bring down their government,\u201d he told the Post, adding that he would demand control of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.jpost.com\/tags\/finance-ministry\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Finance Ministry<\/a> and the Competition Authority during coalition negotiations.<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-paragraph-section article-body-paragraph\">Zelekha said he would insist on having the authority to implement his economic program regardless of whether Netanyahu, Bennett, or Gadi Eisenkot becomes prime minister, and would be prepared to bring down the government if his efforts were obstructed.<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-paragraph-section article-body-paragraph\">\u201cWithin three months from the day I take my seat, you will not recognize the country,\u201d Zelekha said, outlining a five-point plan aimed at reducing living costs by increasing competition and removing barriers to imports.<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-paragraph-section article-body-paragraph\">His proposed measures include abolishing all tariffs, eliminating import quotas, and preventing domestic manufacturers that hold monopolistic positions from also serving as importers.<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-paragraph-section article-body-paragraph\">He also promised to prohibit exclusive import agreements and prevent importers representing one major international manufacturer from securing control over imports from another manufacturer that would otherwise compete with it.<\/p>\n<p>Zelekha further told the Post he would transfer the Competition Authority to the Finance Ministry, placing it under his supervision so that he could oversee enforcement of competition law.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cThe reason Bibi attacks me is that he knows that once I become finance minister, the public will&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":647702,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[49,20914,1980,85,46,291339,74468,43,284354],"class_list":["post-647701","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-israel","tag-benjamin-netanyahu","tag-cost-of-living-in-israel","tag-finance-ministry","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-israel-competition-authority","tag-israel-elections","tag-news","tag-the-reservists-economic-party"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/647701","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=647701"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/647701\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/647702"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=647701"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=647701"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=647701"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}