Defense cuts will harm IDF’s capacity to protect Israel, Gantz warns

Amid shifting and growing threats to Israel, cutting the defense budget will limit the army’s capacity to defend the country, IDF Chief of General Staff Benny Gantz said in an Independence Day interview Tuesday.

Gantz was interviewed amid reports that Finance Minister Yair Lapid intends to cut some NIS 3 billion from the defense budget, amid a package of cutbacks in the next budget.

Gantz said that the army does its best to protect Israel on the funds it’s given, noting that a bigger budget would mean more robust programs, while a cut in the defense budget would take a painful toll on the army, at least in some capacities. He talked about the possibility of shortening the compulsory service time for certain army units, and said that having fewer people work harder, or for more hours, would put a strain on the army. He called on the IDF’s manpower division to work out the ideal length of compulsory service time.

“The threats we face are growing and shifting all the time. But they are there, and we need to work and protect ourselves,” he said.

On Iran’s nuclear program, Gantz contested the interviewers’ inferences that Israel had been obsessed with a military option at the expense of diplomatic possibilities. He said that the Israeli leadership, at all levels, had worked relentlessly to ascertain the best means for dealing with Iran.

The chief of staff noted that military ties between Israel and Egypt are “not worse” than they were during the Mubarak era, and added that “in certain areas, the ties are even stronger.”

He also called Turkey “a very big country that carries a lot of weight in the region.” He stated that Jerusalem and Ankara share many common interests: “Syria, for example, is as big a challenge for Turkey as it is for Israel.”

Israel and Turkey “had good days in the past, and I hope that we reach that point again… I think Israel did the right thing by reaching out to Turkey,” Gantz continued, referring to last month’s apology by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for “operational errors” that led to the deaths of nine Turkish citizens when Israeli commandos were attacked as they commandeered the Gaza-bound Mavi Marmara in 2010.

Speaking about the IDF, Gantz took a brief moment to remember those who gave their lives in defense of the country.

Even with ultra-Orthodox conscription, he said, the army must remain a place in which women and men serve. He said that approximately 1,500 ultra-Orthodox soldiers are currently serving in the IDF. “I believe that ultra-Orthodox Jews gain from being in the army, much as the army gains from having them… I do think it’s possible to be a devout [ultra-Orthodox] Jew and to serve in the army.”

On the matter of burial for soldiers who are not recognized as Jewish by the rabbinate, Gantz said, “I don’t think we should discriminate in terms of our appreciation for the people in question. They fought and died with us, and I think we should separate the national dimension from the Halachic [Jewish law] dimension on this.”