Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert announced in August that he would restore the 150 million shekels (€27 million, US$36 million) cut from the budget of the campaign to fight traffic incidents bringing it back up to 550 million shekels (€98 million, US$133 million).

Although clearly influenced by the recent spate of fatal incidents, sources close to the prime minister insisted that this decision was not a reversal, explaining that the cut had been proposed by …