Government set to discuss budget changes, as Gantz keeps slamming non-war expenses

Carrie Keller-Lynn is a former political and legal correspondent for The Times of Israel

Left: Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich at the Knesset on November 20, 2023. (Oren Ben Hakoon/Flash90); Right: Minister Benny Gantz attends a press conference at the Defense Ministry in Tel Aviv, November 22, 2023. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)
Left: Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich at the Knesset on November 20, 2023. (Oren Ben Hakoon/Flash90); Right: Minister Benny Gantz attends a press conference at the Defense Ministry in Tel Aviv, November 22, 2023. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)

The government is set to discuss upcoming changes to the 2023 end-of-year budget, even over continued objections from war cabinet minister Benny Gantz, who demands that all political priorities not tied to wartime necessities be cut from the plan.

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich says he cut discretionary coalition funds by 70% out of the pool of money that was allocated for 2023 but has not yet been moved out of the treasury. Gantz says this amounts to about NIS 1 billion ($266 million), a fraction of the some NIS 30 billion ($8 billion) that Israel is expected to need to close out the year.

A source close to Gantz says that the budget being presented to the government today is “a finger in the public’s eye,” according to a statement released by Gantz’s National Unity party.

The budget is not yet public. The source says it bumps funding for yeshivas by NIS 500 million ($133 million), allocates NIS 400 million ($107 million) to the National Missions Ministry — “whose purpose is unclear” and is run by Smotrich’s party — and triples the agreed-upon increase to private ultra-Orthodox school salaries.

Reports based on leaked budget clauses say that Smotrich will continue to fund a controversial NIS 300 million bump to private ultra-Orthodox schools, as well as sending hundreds of millions of shekels to West Bank settler priorities.

Gantz supports “proper education” and budgeting security for West Bank communities, but “this is not what is being presented to the government today,” the source writes.

Smotrich, in a long Facebook post, says that critics are “recycling the same false campaign” as was used against the original budget, passed in May.

Last night, Gantz sent a letter to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, saying that his party’s five cabinet ministers would vote against the budget changes.

“We will oppose disbursing coalition funds or any additional budget that is not connected to the war effort or advancing economic growth,” he wrote.

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