Olmert chides Netanyahu for failure to address poverty

Acting Israeli Finance Minister Ehud Olmert on Tuesday slammed Binyamin Netanyahu's socio-economic policy as finance minister, saying Netanyahu's actions "lacked the means necessary to face the ever-widening social gaps and the destructive consequences that affect wide parts of Israeli society. "

Olmert was quoted by the Ha'aretz daily as telling the Knesset (parliament) Finance Committee that he was "unhappy in the past with budgetary priorities that widened social gaps. The result on the individual level is what we call worsening poverty."

Presenting major points of the State Budget 2006, Olmert told Knesset members that he had in the past "reservations about not creating the tools to help parts of the population that suffer from growing financial hardship."

Olmert said that Netanyahu was correct in cutting back the benefits system, adding that reduction in the number of pension recipients and providing incentives to join workforce is the right policy and a brave one.

"These moves are commendable. One must be fair," he said.

Source: Xinhua