Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu spoke on Sunday at the start of the weekly Cabinet meeting.

In his remarks, Netanyahu addressed last week’s return of Gilad Shalit, as well as the other challenges facing the Israeli Government today.

“Last week, we brought Gilad Shalit, alive and well, back to the State of Israel,” Netanyahu said. “I would like to thank you all for your part in the decision that we made. These were an exceptional two weeks of national unity, and now we are continuing to deal energetically with the many challenges that we took upon ourselves when this Government was established two-and-a-half years ago.”

Netanyahu spoke of “several major revolutions” currently being led by the Israeli Government, the first one being in the field of education.

“Today, we will add Jerusalem to the plan to encourage higher education studies among discharged soldiers, in continuation of what we did for the periphery,” he said.

The second revolution Netanyahu spoke of is in the transportation field, where the Government has been building infrastructures, expressways, interchanges and railways to the Galilee and the Negev, and in the center.

The third revolution mentioned is what Netanyahu termed “the socio-economic revolution.”

“Two weeks ago, we approved the general framework of the Trajtenberg report, and in the coming weeks we will approve – both here in the Cabinet and in the Knesset – detailed decisions on lowering the cost of living, including the goods and services paid for by Israeli citizens,” he said. “The actions that we will take and the decisions that we will take will lower the costs of education for very young children, will lower purchase taxes and will make housing more available. I am convinced that a considerable portion of the Cabinet’s agenda in the coming weeks and months will be devoted to these issues.”

“Today we will also hear about progress in two additional important initiatives that the Government is promoting – environmental protection, and there are many developments, and the war on crime, in which there have been many achievements,” said the Prime Minister. “We will continue to advance initiatives in all these areas which impact Israelis’ daily lives and the life of the country as a whole.”

“Then we are getting back to work. Thank you,” he concluded.