3 to 4 times what the average civilian pension is.. Why is it so much?

like hell you are. The IDF never imagined being hit by .....oh horror....budget cuts. It didn't foresee it and it doesn't know how to deal with it. Hence it goes public in a dramatic way knowing full well that this scaretactic will hit a dramatic note. the Israeli people are made scared at a daily base so the last thing they need is the army telling it it probably hasn't got enough money to protect it. What the army desperately need instead of new gadgets all the time in a limitless suply is a sound monetary budget and leadershipl

Message from Ya'alon to AIPAC Head Office, Washington D.C., "We're running out of money over here, get over to Congress and demand, shame, bribe, threaten or whatever you have to do to get more just like all the other times p.s. make sure it's a "loan" we don't have to pay back ;) " Shalom! Moshe and Benny

Cutbacks may have Occured but its hard to believe the Army has to be stopped .Obviously there is a money problem but Israel spends more on the military than most nations . Lately there was an article on jets than can hit miltiple Target .The big Problem is the Rich in the Galut and Israel Wax Fat with Mansions and expensive Cars and that a severe Audit of The Donations Is not there .Penalties for Corruption ought be very severe .

The money used to guard settlements could be used for more worthy military purposes

the Yeshivas doing sweet f all, day in day out. Then you will have tons of money to protect their 'holier than thou asses', so they can attack you while you are wearing the uniform. Its time to take the country back from these sons of bitches.

protecting the whiney assholes who bitch about them day in day out. Without the IDF you and your friends would be toast. Thats the god damn truth. Next time you see a soldier, fall to your knees and thank him/her for protecting your ass.

lapid like his dad knows nothing about the miilitary and what it takes and yet reduces idf funding below critical levels. This lapid was a media hack in the idf like barnea, olmert, oren and did no combat( i wonder why). get off your bloody ass and fund the army as it comes even before bread and health. Fund it!

tactics to get what they want end

IDF has plenty of money. They choose to waste it whenever they feel like it. This is just a ploy to get more money.

Fat pensions at age 45, officer privileges with no holds barred, massive waste. They've been spoilt for so long they don't know what cutting costs means. So they use the "imminent threat" card, as they always have.

It is bad enough that the PMO, DMO and IDF abandon the protector of Kver Yosef to mutilated and literally eaten, now they are going to forget about all the resources they have expended in not removing the threat, those that literally come to eat those the PMO, DMO and IDF serve those they are sworn to serve and protect to. The executive summary is the GOI PMO, DMO and IDF are serving you to the mad asses of men. They are complicit in more of your destruction than the other. You would be better off without them so you can enforce the right of return of the genocidal mass murdering extortionists back to the homicidal Hamite peninsular homeland of their own name. The GOI PMO, DMO and IDF abrogate their oaths through their lips by feeding you to those who come to kill you. That is how they serve you. They don]t remove the mad asses of men they destroy your lives in the land of your own name and next to that will disarm you and leave you defenseless complicit in the expected result by the usual suspects that they act complicitly in sealing your fate.

Israel has very high military costs (leading to high taxes and begging the US for money) for two simple reasons (1) an unnecessary occupation (2) failure to NEGOTIATE a peace agreement with the rest of the countries in the ME. The Saudi Peace plan that the entire ME, including both Hamas and Fatah have agreed to, but Israel rejects out of hand, has been "on the table" for over ten years. Israel simply has to give up lots of land, water and cash (for compensation) in exchange for peace and much lower military costs. Constant war will bankrupt Israel.

This is a sign that we need no army because the Messiah is on its way. He is a one man army.

To the first person who commented, I would say IDF pensions are high in order to decrease the likelihood that former military personnel with knowledge of sensitive information would trade such information for financial gain.

Use the extra cash to cover budget problems, and upgrade electronic capabilities of existing planes.

I don't know what army pensions are, but for sure they don't cost as much as an UNNEEDED new house and office for the PM! I don't know who or how the army budget is prepared, but for sure it isn't by the people most involved in our military needs. I don't know by whom, or how this most important subject should be discussed, but certainly the public has a right to know in this situation. Our very existence is dependent on the IDF. It is not the Treasury that should make these decisions. alsonet

Send in the bean counters and management experts and teach these people to live with reality. ie you cant get everything you want. We are a country with an armt, not an army with a country. Enough already with this nonsense

The same solution which was invented by Colonel Edmund Dick Taylor and implemented by President Abraham Lincoln to finance the Civil War. Just create the money and make it legal tender!

Which were themselves modeled on government pensions in general, meaning that they came out of that respective branch's budget. The key difference for the military is that the old retirement age was fairly early, 45 - itself designed around ideas of physical military capability, and (a political decision almost as old as the country) that the command staff should be fairly young and energetic. But let's go back to that magical pension... it doesn't get any new entrants. As of 2003, the Budgetary Pension, as it is known, was annulled - for any new soldiers, the army has your basic, run-of-the-mill civilian pension scheme, only with *much lower* salaries compared to the general populace. And the pensionable age was raised. Of course, anyone who was in the army before 2003 is still on the budgetary pension - you can't legally retroactively lower working conditions, though the Treasury seems to imply that you can, and should. In which case, should we perhaps examine the Treasury workers' pensions and base salaries? Because they're far higher. Any mention of Army pensions by the Treasury is pretty mostly a game of distract and manipulate - the issue was seen decades before and not touched (in *all* government branches) even as pension payouts rose and rose in relation to the overall budget. Is it a high expense now? Yes. Will it still rise, as people in the old pension scheme reach pensionable age? Yes. We'll only see an end to that in years. But it's interesting to note that the Treasury implies that it would be better to go through a forced, retroactive pension change for one government org alone. The one that cannot, under any legal circumstances, strike.

Where exactly, tell us. But we know that the budget in Israel is not transparent, just another weakness of the government. Its pathetic.

How anyone can believe you can make peace with neighbors who are determined to kill you is ludicrous! To believe any promise Hamas or Fatah makes is like believing "If you like your health plan you can keep your health plan." If Israel listened to you there would soon be no more Israel.

Then

Which were themselves modeled on government pensions in general, meaning that they came out of that respective branch's budget. The key difference for the military is that the old retirement age was fairly early, 45 - itself designed around ideas of physical military capability, and (a political decision almost as old as the country) that the command staff should be fairly young and energetic. But let's go back to that magical pension... it doesn't get any new entrants. As of 2003, the Budgetary Pension, as it is known, was annulled - for any new soldiers, the army has your basic, run-of-the-mill civilian pension scheme, only with *much lower* salaries compared to the general populace. And the pensionable age was raised. Of course, anyone who was in the army before 2003 is still on the budgetary pension - you can't legally retroactively lower working conditions, though the Treasury seems to imply that you can, and should. In which case, should we perhaps examine the Treasury workers' pensions and base salaries? Because they're far higher. Any mention of Army pensions by the Treasury is pretty mostly a game of distract and manipulate - the issue was seen decades before and not touched (in *all* government branches) even as pension payouts rose and rose in relation to the overall budget. Is it a high expense now? Yes. Will it still rise, as people in the old pension scheme reach pensionable age? Yes. We'll only see an end to that in years. But it's interesting to note that the Treasury implies that it would be better to go through a forced, retroactive pension change for one government org alone. The one that cannot, under any legal circumstances, strike.

...preparing for a war against Iran's nuclear program that it probably never intended to wage." -DailyBeast

Stop the illegal settlements in the West Bank Stop protecting illegal settlers of the West Bank Seperate religion from state now Stop bribes and corruption and tadaaaah: money there is !

Lapid was desperate to get the haredi into the army despite the fact they are not even needed and it will cost the army billions to absorb them but now he is cutting the actually budget to a shoestring. You cannot have a situation where you have to have an army budget for just 6 months in advance, Hezbollah act more like a professional army than this the IDF but we expect them to do more and more. How does Lapid justify taxing the army on fuel for their tanks and jets? WHAT RIGHT does any politician or Israeli citizen have to ask any of these men to or women to risk the lives if we are not willing to give them the money to buy the hardware they need to do the job. In Lebanon reservists were told to buyi their own body armour or do without because to save money we didn't buy any. The worrying thing here is if Labor win the next election they will cut the budget even further then we will be planning weeks in advance

you are absolutely right. The bill will end up nearing trillions in the decade long maintenance of those planes. Plus,those f-35 are very far from justifying their exorbitant price. Many flaws still, many basic unsolved safety and accuracy issues. IDF should give up those too expansive toys and improve their current fleet.

Lapid stopped it already. Time to go after all the other shnorrers. Gotta' tell you man, your comments about other Jews are a piece of work.