So here's the context.
Israel's parliament passed an emergency economic plan Thursday, ending a three-month struggle between the Ministry of Finance and the country's main trade union federation over the future of the Israeli welfare state.
The plan, passed by a large majority, cuts $2.3 billion from the $45 billion state budget.
Particularly hard-hit are child allowances for large families - mostly ultra-orthodox Jews and Israeli-Arabs - which will fall by 70 percent over the next seven years, and public-sector employees, who will see an average 4 percent wage cut in 2003 and 2004. (Associated Press Online, May 29, 2003)
Israel had cut child allowances (which we in the United States in our strong allegiance to the free market commonly refer to as "welfare") for large families as a result of a push by Netanyahu. Large families in Israel are overwhelmingly either ultra-Orthodox Jews or Israeli-Arabs.
