The 2016 defense budget passed handily in the Knesset Joint Committee on the Defense Budget earlier today, giving the army as much as NIS 60 billion for the year. But not everyone is pleased.
MK Shelly Yachimovich (Zionist Union), a member of the committee, was one of the four who voted against the proposed budget (eight voted for).
The reason, she explains, was the “unprofessional” way the budget was brought to the Knesset.
“I refuse to take part in approving a fictional budget that everyone knows is a pretense,” she says. “The shallow and lackadaisical handling of the issue does immense damage to the IDF’s planning ability and harms national security. It turns the entire state budget into a bad joke, since everyone understands it won’t be followed.”
The defense budget of NIS 56.1 billion, with up to NIS 3 billion more to be added if the army implements certain reforms demanded by Treasury officials, is a compromise figure reached after months of acrimonious jockeying between the defense and finance ministries.
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From the Liveblog of
Sunday, November 15, 2015
