Israeli Politicians Argue Over Hanukkah Grants To Yeshiva Students

Today's Haaretz reports on bitter political exchanges between members of Israel's Knesset as Finance Committee Chair Yaakov Litzman (Agudath Israel) Monday obtained an extra Hanukkah grant for yeshiva students. The grants total NIS 44 million. Over the next few days, each unmarried student in the ultra-Orthodox religious schools will receive NIS 330 (US $72), and each married student will get NIS 600 (US $130). MK Ronnie Brizon, of the secularist party, Shinui, was outraged, saying that the government was disbursing funds "like hot potato pancakes on Hanukkah." Brizon called the yeshiva students "people who contribute almost nothing to society, but receive almost everything from it".