Top Brass at Israel’s Finance Ministry Quit En Masse

Israeli Finance Ministry Director-General Keren Terner-Eyal announced her abrupt resignation on Sunday, barely four months into the job. Terner-Eyal becomes the third – and highest-ranking – official in the battered ministry to quit in the past few weeks, leading many to question Minister Israel Katz’s actions and conduct. While the resigning ministry chief, who was brought on at Katz’s personal request, remained mum on the reasons for her departure, it is believed that Katz’s and Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s controversial coronavirus stimulus packages, decried by economists and Finance Ministry officials as populistic, was the driving force behind the surprise move. The recent mass exodus from the ministry is also blamed on the government’s failing to pass a budget, as Netanyahu has repeatedly stalled negotiations with Alternate Prime Minister Benny Gantz as he mulls the option of dissolving the coalition and declaring general elections. In a Facebook post on Monday, Katz responded to the resignations controversy, promising his ministry was “functioning flawlessly.” Katz added that “any attempt to paint the ministry as crumbling is political and far from true.”