Ouch at the pumps - Israeli drivers woke up to a nasty surprise on 1 September, and while it’s hurting their wallets, not everyone thinks it will hurt Bibi at the ballot box.

Petrol pain is back in Israel, and it’s official.

As of Monday, the maximum price for 95-octane at self-service pumps has jumped 16 agorot to 8.25 shekels a litre - that’s about $2.75 - matching the all-time nominal record last seen in September 2012, as captured in footage by cbinews.tv in Tel Aviv.

If your car has a 50-litre tank, you’re now looking at over 412 shekels to fill up. And it’s been a brutal climb - up 77 agorot since July alone, and a whopping 1.40 shekels since the start of the year.

So, what’s behind the surge? It’s not just one thing. According to cbinews.tv, international petrol prices in the Mediterranean basin rose around six per cent last month, and that’s been compounded by tweaks to Israel’s hefty fuel tax - the belo - and the marketing margin that goes to petrol companies.

For context, Israel has always been one of the most expensive places in the world to fill up. More than half of what you pay at the pump is tax. The price is set by the government on the first of every month, based on that basket of factors.

And yes, we’ve been here before. Back in September 2012, prices also hit 8.25 shekels during a global oil spike and tensions with Iran. In real terms, though, drivers had it even worse then - adjusted for inflation, that 2012 price would be well over 10 shekels today. So this record hurts, but it’s not yet the most expensive ever in your pocket’s true purchasing power.

The politics is where it gets interesting.

We spoke to drivers in Tel Aviv as the new price flashed up on the forecourts. Almog Vodner wasn’t buying any talk of a political fallout for Benjamin Netanyahu.

“Whoever voted for him before will vote for him after,” he told cbinews.tv.

Another driver, Anael Mamo, didn’t link the hike directly to the wars in Gaza and Iran, but she didn’t let the government off the hook either.

“We don’t buy fuel from Iran. If anything, we would have expected, because of the cooperation with the United States, that they would bring better prices. Regardless, he is to blame for many things, but specifically regarding fuel, it’s the fact that he appointed a Finance Minister without any training,” she said.

That’s a pointed jab at Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich. He’s under pressure now - on Sunday he ordered his officials to examine a possible cut to fuel excise tax to ease the squeeze. Netanyahu himself has yet to publicly comment on the new record.

Will a tax cut come? It has before. Governments of all stripes have temporarily slashed the tax when prices spiked, only to quietly put it back up when the headlines faded. For now, Israeli motorists are just counting the shekels.

Source: binews.tv

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