Haaretz – Adapted
Soon after becoming the minister of finance in 1986, Moshe Nissim was interviewd by a group of settlers who said: "We don't have enough money to keep the lands. Give us an extra budget. Anyway, you support settlements." Nissim replied: "The budget is similar to a wall that you construct with bricks stacked one on top of the other; if you remove one brick, the wall will crumble. I am thus unable to give."

Everyone stopped asking Nissim for the additions once they understood that he was a serious finance minister. Bezalel Smotrich, in contrast, cannot be compared to Nissim. He is not a minister of finance. He is a politician who is only concerned with his constituency, which includes colonial settlers, religious nationalists, and members of the clergy. He is unaware that it is his responsibility to protect the government's finances, spur economic growth, and lower the unemployment rate. He has no worry about the Israeli economy. He is in charge of the civil administration at the Defense Ministry, where he has a considerably bigger role in regulating evictions, demolitions, and the establishment of new settlements in the territories.

If he were a real finance minister, his main responsibility would have been to comprehend the effects of the regime coup on the economy. He ought to have carefully considered the cost to the economy of this coup before determining whether or not to support it. When he met with bank bosses this week, he was enraged with them because they had directly warned him of the severe consequences that a regime coup could bring about (whether to the state or the economy). They also informed him of the severe increase in money transfers and withdrawals abroad.

If he were a true finance minister, he would not have dared to jeopardize American support for Israel and the large security grant. But for him, building in the territories and legalizing outposts is God's will, and so let Joe Biden do what he wants. We don't have a finance minister; we have a settler.