‘Back to Oct. 6’: Defense Ministry director says Finance Ministry stiffing IDF, ‘playing games’

Defense Ministry Director General Amir Baram warns that Israel has slipped back into flawed prewar economic thinking, arguing that current budgetary frameworks are insufficient to meet the country’s security challenges, according to a statement from the Defense Ministry.

“We went back too quickly to October 6,” Baram says, referring to the period before Hamas’s shock October 7, 2023, onslaught, at a forecast conference hosted by business newspaper Calcalist. “We are certainly not at the correct operating point in terms of funding volumes and cash flow, at the pace and scale required for the IDF.”

Baram accuses the Finance Ministry of knowingly underbudgeting defense needs while placing expanding demands on the military.

“The budget framework agreed for 2026 is NIS 112 billion [roughly $35 billion]. The Finance Ministry knows that the ‘operational framework’ – the total scope of missions that the political echelon imposes or is expected to impose on the IDF – will be far larger,” he says.

He continues, “What does it do? It ‘plays games’ with the defense establishment… consistently underbudgets, drags the industries into debt, and then accuses the IDF of alleged overruns – overruns that are clearly inevitable.”

He warns that under the current budgeting method, “which has not fundamentally changed from what was practiced before October 7,” Israel would fail to meet the pace of force buildup required for future conflicts.

While noting that the intensity of fighting has declined and that Israeli technology has produced “very significant achievements,” Baram stresses that “even now, all arenas remain open,” and says Israel must prepare for prolonged, multifront conflicts rather than short, limited rounds of fighting.

Baram says the Defense Ministry is pushing to expand domestic production capacity and boost defense exports, arguing that such investments would strengthen both national security and the Israeli economy in the long term.