Anyone who served in the IDF like me, has seen the huge negligence that exists everywhere when it comes to wasting money and resources. Water runs out from hoses, nobody bothers to close the water pipe. Tons of food are thrown to the garbage bin day after day. Good ammunition is thrown carelessly on the floor and wasted. Non-combatant officers receive absurd salaries and benefits. And so on.. Nobody cares because the money is free to waste, but when a brigade is sent to fight in Lebanon they find themselves short on ammunition, without water and sometimes even without helmets. Mr. Lapid.. cut those bastards down.

1) stop drafting women into the army, if they don't want to go, don't force them. Israel of today is not the Israel of 1948 with 600,000 citizens with an army in need of all able bodied men and women! 2) lower military service for men to 2 years max 3) end military reserve duty after age 35

In the beginning you told the Haredim to go to work. Now you transfer them money, a day after you claim that there is no money to pay for 8 days paternity leave. You need to decide, the Haredim or all of us. So far, it is NOR all of us.

Lets talk facts. Lapid's father was a peres delusionist who supported olmert in his pursuit of palestinian state with huge israeli concessions, ones I would not tolerate one second. Nothing israel could do can satisfy arabs except leaving israelperiod no matter what abbas says. No, but lapid jr, the arrogant journalist, thinks he knows everything. So be careful what you cut in defense. What yaalon needs he should get but I agree there are some things that the idf has to absorb. But be careful.

The way Lapid talks about the IDF must needing to pull its weight and his hared enlistment obsession anybody would think he was a top general who was a veteran of many wars when infact Lapid spent his military service as a radio presenter. He is hardly in a position to tell the IDF how it must run things. Positions like finance and defense in future should be jobs given to professionals. Lapid has proven already he doesn't know the first thing about finances and he has even admitted it whilst we have also had previous chiefs of staff like Amir Peretz Some jobs are just to Important for the national interest to be run by political ammeters who make choices based on whats good for their career.

- We cant afford our Security ! Typical Civilian Reasoning. Arn.Sweden.

Cutting high military and intelligence wages is a double edged sword, since there is tremendous pull from the private sector. But that said, there is also tremendous waste in some military sectors. In the US, a comparison would be the big ticket checks given to re-up. MY nephew jut completed four years in training as an engineer in the navy and got a check for $75,000 for signing on another 6 years. Sorry but who approved that? This kid is 26 years old and has no degree but he gets $75,000 to go on with his job just because it is military? I agree with Lapid that it is absurd when military leaders make more than the PM. I doubt Lapid truly understands finances but the concept of over paying leaders isn't too tough to fathom and he's somewhat correct to address it.

Generation collapsing from housing cost. Not IDF requirements

The US is famous for wastage, they have an annual budget bigger to the net worth of some countries and overspending, continuing with projects that are just considered dead horses and throwing good money after bad an many other things. The IDF on the other hand because it has a very small budget is a very careful spender, to small because in many cases they keep on operating equipment that should have long ago been retired or skimping on detail to keep project cost down only to later on regret it. This is why cutting the budget for the IDF is a major thing because it already operates on a tight budget so every shekel counts. The thing that makes Israeli weapons popular amongst many countries if out of need ( IDF budget ) Israeli companies will develop modern western weapons but at the same time do it on a budget so its much cheaper than the US equivalent. We need to take both the finance and defense ministries out of the hands of politicians and into the hands of professionals because those areas are to essential to be exposed to politics because politicians don't always do whats best very often its whats best for their career especially if they have already made on wrong call and are trying to rebuild their image or there is an election coming..

He senses the sorrow of Israel that there is not enough money to give to IDF, to the middle class, to the poor, schools, hospitals, to Holocaust survivors. Lapid is just a bureaucrat, like many next to him within this overblown lazy government of the lame PM. Lapid said "follow the money" if you want to fix things and this is what he is doing. The man deserves our respect. He is working hard and is temporarily sticking his neck out to the loud mouthed critics. Lapid is correct in what he is doing long term, he is smart and functioning well despite the feelings of sorrow that are turning his hair gray.

You are correct in saying that professionals should be Ministers. Political appointees could do a good job, but usually they do not measure up to the task. The worst of all was Limor Livnat while Yair Lapid may yet turn out to be among the best and brightest. I would support the changes you propose.

The problem is not cutting the military budget year in year out to save money its looking for ways of preventing economic problems. Israel survived the worst of the recession, investment is up, unemployment down so whats the problem? Cutting the military budget saves couple million here and there but that doesn't solve the problem, its like giving somebody dying of cancer an aspirin might help ease the pain but its not going to make the cancer go away. We need to start encouraging employers to pay a fair wage because since day 1 israelis have always worked longer hours and for much less money than western counterparts. A doctor in Israel will earn less than a nurse in the US. That is something all governments need to agree to work to change, not by legislation that will drive away investment but giving things a push in the right direction. We need to get people living outside the centre and coastal regions because as long as the ghetto culture exists property prices will remain high and government cannot control property prices. Get rid of the cheap foreign labor go on a campaign to get unemployed Israelis doing the low paid jobs. Minimum wage waiting on tables or doing construction work is better than unemployment. There are a whole range of problems and all we get is political finger pointing and just responding with window dressing to avoid loosing votes on election day to things like the social protests rather than trying to solve problems. Israeli politicians on the left and right have always been good at responding to problems but never been good at prevention.

It is much more complicated than what you describe, but I admire your commitment to getting things going in the right direction. Like many Israelis, you tend to look for an easy scapegoat, believing you know how to solve most of the problems. Unfortunately, there is no one factor to blame, no one simple thing to fix. Yair Lapid cannot fix everything quickly and neither can you. For best results you should offer your thoughts to Lapid's department. You certainly have noble intentions.