Leader of Israeli opposition Benjamin Netanyahu speaks during a meeting with his Likud party in the Knesset, the Israeli parliament, in Jerusalem June 14, 2021. REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun

i24 News – Israel’s opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu launched his right-wing Likud party’s economic plan on Wednesday.

“Our country is in a deep economic crisis. This isn’t fate. It is possible to exit it,” Netanyahu said. “Only a stable government, a stable national government, can lower prices.”

He noted the 4.5 percent rise in prices in the past year, comparing it to a 0.5 percent rise in prices during his 2015-2019 tenure.

Netanyahu argued that the country needed to lower the prices of four “inflation instigators:” electricity, gasoline, water and municipal taxes, which he promised to freeze for a year.

The Likud leader also promised to make education free for children aged 0-3, planning to “lower family expenses by tens of thousands of shekels, grow the economy and enable both parents to go out and work.”

Lowering taxes, another pledge of Netanyahu’s, would come through spreading tax brackets, enlarging tax credit points, and reducing corporate taxes.

Rivals of Netanyahu criticized the plan, with Finance Minister Avigdor Lieberman taking to Twitter to note the high deficit and unemployment under Netanyahu during 2009.

“It is worrisome to think what the results will be. We began to fix what he left, and thanks to us, there is no deficit or unemployment. Continue talking, and we will continue doing,” he wrote.

Prime Minister Yair Lapid’s centrist Yesh Atid party responded by saying, “Opposition head Netanyahu is continuing his disconnected fake news crusade in order to hide the fact that for 15 years he carelessly and recklessly neglected Israel’s economy.”

“The change government headed by Lapid will continue to achieve successes in the struggle to lower the high cost of living for the citizens of Israel.”