Lapid and Netanyahu meet, said to disagree over how to increase defense budget

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Opposition Leader Yair Lapid hold a security meeting in Jerusalem.

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 then asked for the opposition’s support in putting Israel’s budget back on the table in order to allocate more money to Israel’s defense establishment.

Lapid responded that he supports giving more money to the IDF, but it cannot come from additional taxes on Israel’s middle class or reservists, according to his office. He asked that Netanyahu 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 tells Netanyahu, “and we will support the proposal in the Knesset as well.”

The Prime Minister’s Office does not provide comment on the meeting.