As Shas threatened to quit the coalition over mortgages, Minister of Finance Yuval Steinitz summoned Shas chairman and Minister of Interior Eli Yishai and Minister of Housing and Construction Ariel Atias to solve the coalition crisis. Sources inform ''Globes'' that when it was all over, Steinitz agreed that families in peripheral regions will receive NIS 110,000-130,000 each, including an outright grant of NIS 60,000, and rest as subsidies on land and development.
In return for the subsidies, Shas will withdraw its housing subsidies bill, and will not submit it to a vote tonight. Yishai said, "We won the battle for the sake of young couples. For the first time, young couples and people who really need it will receive direct help.
Yishai told his coalition partners over the past few days that this was an economic crisis that could turn into a coalition crisis. "I want to remind those who have forgotten that Shas did not join the government over disagreements on children's allowances. The housing bill is many times more severe than children's allowances."
A senior Shas official said that the mortgage bill had the support of the majority of the public and in the Knesset. "If anyone in the coalition doesn’t understand this, wait to see what will happen if the bill is submitted," he said.
Last Thursday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met Atias and Deputy Minister of Finance Yitzhak Cohen (also a Shas MK). Yishai was absent for medical reasons. On Friday, Atias held a follow-on meeting with Ministry of Finance Budget Director Udi Nissan, after Steinitz went to the home of Shas spiritual leader Rabbi Ovadia Yosef and met Atias and Yishai.
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