Lapid-Netanyahu meeting said to ‘blow up’ over clash on increasing IDF’s budget

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Opposition Leader Yair Lapid held a security meeting in Jerusalem on Monday, where they clashed over the premier’s request to reopen the state budget to allocate more money to Israel’s defense establishment.

The leader of the opposition is traditionally briefed once a month by the prime minister on sensitive national security issues, although Netanyahu and Lapid, who have an acrimonious relationship, have not kept to this schedule.

According to an opposition source, the meeting began with a standard security update from Netanyahu. After that, the head of the IDF Planning Directorate, Maj. Gen. Hidai Zilberman, and National Security Adviser Shmuel Ben Ezra entered, while Accountant General Michal Abadi-Boiangiu joined by phone.

According to Lapid’s office, Netanyahu asked for the opposition’s support in putting the budget back on the table, in order to allocate more money to the defense establishment.

Lapid responded that he supports giving more money to the IDF, but it cannot come from additional taxes on the middle class or reservists, according to his office. He said that he asked Netanyahu to draw the money from budgets allocated to his ultra-Orthodox coalition partners.

“Instead, include in the proposal the cancellation of the corrupt coalition funds and the tens of billions of shekels you are currently transferring to fund Haredi draft evasion,” Lapid told Netanyahu, according to his office, “and we will support the proposal in the Knesset as well.”

The Prime Minister’s Office did not issue its own statement on the meeting. But Netanyahu’s Likud party accused Lapid of “misleading the public” by suggesting that the premier’s request for additional defense funding could necessitate a tax hike.

“Lapid’s claims are baseless and false,” said Netanyahu’s party in a statement. “State revenues were higher than expected as a result of the government’s economic policies, and consequently, the deficit was also lower than expected. Under these circumstances, the defense budget can be increased without raising taxes.”

Likud claimed that the requested increase in funds is far larger than the money allocated to coalition funds or ultra-Orthodox budgets.

“Lapid is abandoning Israel’s security because of cheap political considerations,” asserted Likud.

The statement from Likud appeared to contradict a Channel 12 report that Netanyahu admitted in the meeting that there was no source for the additional money for the IDF, and said the deficit would need to be increased. The report, which did not cite any sources, said the meeting “blew up” after Lapid called for cutting coalition funds.

Defense Minister Israel Katz also criticized Lapid and called on him to approve the “urgent request” for additional funding.

“We face dramatic security challenges that require decisions and action now,” Katz said in a statement. “Delaying the allocation of the required resources could have direct consequences for the IDF’s readiness and for the security of Israel’s citizens.”

Katz asserted that it would “be wrong to tie security issues to the routine political debate with the government over various budgetary items.” He said that the funds “already exist in the state treasury,” but require Knesset legislation and would not be tied to any tax increase.

The defense minister called it “unfortunate” that Lapid was refusing a request of this sort.

Military costs surged as Israel waged costly wars in Gaza, Lebanon, and Iran, as well as operations in Yemen, since the Hamas-led onslaught of October 7, 2023, with the military also seeking to significantly expand its forces that were found lacking in preventing the Hamas massacre and subsequent wars.

The state budget that was passed in March, amid the Iran war that began on February 28, already allotted the Defense Ministry a record NIS 143 billion ($45.8 billion), or about 17 percent of the total spending bill.

In July, the Finance Ministry said it had reached an agreement with the Defense Ministry to immediately transfer an additional NIS 15 billion ($5.01 billion) in budget funds for the military amid claims by the IDF that it was on the verge of grounding an array of units.

The military has for months been seeking an additional NIS 40 billion ($13 billion) to fund the procurement of weaponry and equipment.

Last month, IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir said that “unfortunately, these days, we are also engaged in a battle over the budget.”

“At a time when the IDF and its personnel are stretched across all fronts, we must contend with ’empty coffers.’ Such a situation harms the IDF’s readiness,” he claimed at the time.

Channel 12 news reported Monday that because the additional funds have not yet been transferred to the Defense Ministry, the procurement of a squadron of 12 Apache helicopters that the IDF has been seeking since early 2024 could be delayed by up to three years, as another customer will take Israel’s place if it does not complete the deal.

Such threats have previously been used by military and Defense Ministry officials in briefings with the media to secure additional funding.

In January, the US approved the potential sale of the Apaches for $3.8 billion.

The procurement of the Apache helicopters follows lessons learned from Hamas’s October 7 attack and the fighting in the Gaza Strip, according to Israeli defense officials.