Ahead of the planned cabinet vote on the 2026 state budget on Thursday, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich declared that he will lower the cost of living and take on big banks and monopolies, pledging that unless his proposed reforms are included, “there will be no state budget.”

At a press briefing, Smotrich lauded government economic policy during the two-year war in the Gaza Strip, when hundreds of thousands of reserve soldiers were called up for duty and spent months away from their families and unable to work. He accused banks and “monopolies” of taking advantage of the situation to boost their profits and vowed to break their hold.

Opposition Yair Lapid, however, warned that the budget’s flaws would crush the middle class and raise taxes for average citizens.

Israelis have been winning on the battlefield and also “winning on the economic front,” Smotrich claimed, asserting that the government had “managed the situation responsibly,” providing solutions for the troops, the displaced and “the small and medium-sized businesses across the country that bravely endured a difficult economic period and received a broad safety net.”

“But unfortunately, not everyone joined us in that effort. While you, the citizens of Israel, mobilized, the banks stood on the sidelines, took advantage of the high interest rates, and raked in enormous, unimaginable profits at your expense,” he charged.

“The same goes for the monopolies. They raised prices again and again, simply exploiting the war, and pocketed huge profits at our expense,” Smotrich continued, pledging that “we are finally going to deal with them” in the 2026 budget. “After two years in which our focus was survival — life and security — we are now going to make sure they pay, and you receive.”

Smotrich accused the banks of “extortion and exploitation” and promised to open the banking market to competition by allowing a streamlined process for........

© The Times of Israel