Ministers reject rise in defense budget
Tense seven-hour meeting on 2008 defense budget ends with ministers voting against Defense Ministry's demand to increase budget by $1.6 billion. Chief of staff to cabinet: I'm warning you, if the budget doesn't pass – it'll be on your heads
The government on Sunday rejected a proposal issued by Defense Minister Ehud Barak to add $1.6 billion to next year's defense budget and push back the debate on the Brodet Committee's recommendations on budget reform.
A total of 16 ministers voted to accept the Brodet Committee's report, in accordance with the proposal put forward by Prime Minister Ehud Olmert – which bested Barak's. Only five ministers voted with Barak.
Olmert rebuffed claims that any failures during the Second Lebanon War had anything to do with budgetary difficulties.
"We've been through a difficult experience. There were many failings, but most of them aren't related to budgetary reasons. The attempt to depict the situation in that manner is disturbing," he said.
Barak presented his demand to increase the military's budget at the cabinet meeting, sparking harshly worded confrontations between defense and treasury officials.
"I'm asking you to pass it. I'm warning you, know that if the budget doesn't pass – it'll be on your heads," said Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi at the meeting, according to numerous participants.
Barak reportedly listed five points he vehemently refused to back down from: No cutbacks on training exercises, increasing troop numbers, maintaining the necessary stockpiles and preserving the IDF's strategic capabilities and long reach of its arm.
A senior Labor minister told Ynet after the heated meeting that "it is inconceivable that a year after the war and in such a complex reality, which may lead to another confrontation, anyone would chip away at the defense budget."
'Country can't brake for defense'
Barak's proposal was presented as part of a larger debate regarding the Brodet recommendations. The committee's findings were intended to establish a stable multi-year budgetary plan but defense officials say the army needs far bigger budgets to prepare for the current and future threats facing Israel.
Officials within Olmert's office said on Sunday evening, "The Brodet report recommends additions to the defense budget over the course of the next decade, a growth that will promise stability and security for defense undertakings. Obviously not everything the defense establishment needs or demands can't all be done in one year.
"It's ludicrous to think that an entire country will stop all its welfare and education projects so that the defense establishment can have all it demands. We must prioritize so that the war on poverty and unemployment doesn't falter."
