From the Liveblog of
Wednesday, August 28, 2024
Gallant, Smotrich add NIS 400 million in additional funding for IDF reservists
Sam Sokol is the Times of Israel's political correspondent. He was previously a reporter for the Jerusalem Post, Jewish Telegraphic Agency and Haaretz. He is the author of "Putin’s Hybrid War and the Jews"
Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant announce the allocation of hundreds of millions of shekels in additional funding for IDF reservists.
During a meeting with reserve commanders in the south, the ministers announce that an additional NIS 400 million ($109 million) will be allocated to an assistance fund for reservists “so that the benefits given at the beginning of the war will continue until the end of 2024,” according to a joint statement released by Smotrich’s office.
“You know that the finance minister and I don’t always agree on everything, but we do agree on the reserve issue,” Gallant says, adding that reservists “need three things: clear tasks, resources to carry them out, and fair treatment and compensation. We are here today on a mission of fair treatment and compensation.”
Smotrich and Gallant’s announcement follows the cabinet’s approval of a proposed increase to the 2024 state budget pushed by Smotrich that will provide NIS 200 million ($54 million) to help fund reserve military service.
Recalling that he and Smotrich earlier this year jointly advanced a NIS 9 billion ($2.5 billion) wartime assistance program for reservists, Gallant says that the “coming days” will see an addition of two tranches of NIS 400 and 200 million for those called to duty after October 7.
It appears from Gallant’s comments that the 400 million shekel budget announced today is in addition to the 200 million announced yesterday but spokespeople for Smotrich and Gallant did not immediately respond to requests for clarification.
“I think both [Gallant] and I understood at the very beginning of the war that this war will be fought by the reservists and this war will be fought by the families of the reservists,” Smotrich says, adding that as the government enters into discussions regarding the 2025 budget, it is understood that “we are heading toward years in which the reserve system will look completely different from the way it looked before the war.”
Earlier this month, a public committee to examine defense spending demanded by Smotrich met for the first time, following an extended fight with the defense establishment.
Smotrich and Gallant had engaged in a public battle over the defense budget, with the finance minister previously threatening that he would not approve any “strategic and long-term future force build-up” until after the committee published its recommendations, claiming that “doing the same thing over and over again without learning from past mistakes will bring us a disaster.”
