Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is preoccupied with the approaching election, and the large budget increase he promised to urgently transfer to the defense establishment remains stalled, with serious doubt that it will be approved before polling stations open in a month and a half. This comes despite military officials warning in recent weeks that the state of the IDF’s preparedness and armament is already “on the brink of an abyss.”
In talks held up to three weeks ago between Netanyahu and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, it was agreed that the state budget would be reopened to allow for an increase of tens of billions of shekels in defense spending.
IDF forces on the southern border
(Photo: Jack Guez / AFP)
Smotrich asked Netanyahu to determine the final amount as soon as possible so the Finance Ministry could prepare the formal government resolution for Cabinet approval. But since then Netanyahu has not informed Smotrich of the final amount he decided to add to the defense budget.
Smotrich told Netanyahu that the Finance Ministry would cooperate with any amount the prime minister decided to add to the defense establishment, but asked that the sum be “the minimum absolutely necessary at this stage so as not to harm future contracts and urgent procurement.”
According to Smotrich, “As for additional sums beyond the money that is truly urgent, we should wait for the decision of the next government.”
It had appeared that Netanyahu was close to ordering the budget reopened by about 25 billion shekels to 30 billion shekels, in line with the finance minister’s agreement, but so far no such instruction has been issued. As a result, the process of reopening the budget has not begun, and the Finance Ministry has not yet prepared any document to be submitted for government approval.
Any budget increase beyond what is set in the state budget requires a government decision and then Knesset approval in three readings.
A Finance Ministry official told ynet: “We can prepare a draft resolution within a short period of time, but in order to do so we need to know the amount of the requested increase that is to be transferred urgently to the defense establishment.”