"We are now starting the Cabinet meeting on approving the state budget. This will be a long and difficult meeting. It will be difficult because we face two very major and simultaneous challenges. The first is the global financial crisis, which threatens us with massive unemployment. The second is security threats and challenges the likes of which we have not known for many years. Everyone who sits around this table knows the size of both challenges and I do not propose that they be taken lightly, neither our economic difficulties, nor our security difficulties.
In order to respond to both of these items, which are both simultaneous and of levels that we have scarcely known, we must exhaust all possible processes. The main thing that will help us meet both of these needs is a package deal with the Histadrut and the employers. We have made progress on this package but we have not yet achieved it. This morning, Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz told me that there are problems, both legal and substantive, in completing the package deal with the Histadrut and the employers. Therefore, we will make the effort, including during this meeting, to resolve these problems. In any case, I am asking ministers one thing: Be patient and show equanimity in order to meet the two fundamental needs of the Israeli economy and Israeli security, and we will provide for these needs."
