Smotrich announces first meeting of committee to examine defense spending amid ongoing war

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich announces that a public committee to examine defense spending will convene next Sunday under the auspices of the National Security Council.

The committee, which is set to be chaired by Brigadier General (Res.) Prof. Jacob Nagel, will include representatives of the Prime Minister’s Office, Finance Ministry, Defense Ministry and IDF, and will engage in an “examination of [the IDF’s] force structure and the defense budget to examine its suitability for the war and the security challenges facing the State of Israel.”

Welcoming the first committee as “a first step in the right direction,” Smotrich asserts that its role is important for the “continued management of the economic aspect of Israel’s security.”

“The Simchat Torah massacre [October 7] sharpened for all of us the critical need to reexamine the force structure and the way the defense budget is distributed. I am confident that the work of the committee in cooperation with all the parties will contribute significantly to the strength of the Israeli security system,” he says.

This May, following an extended fight with the defense establishment, Smotrich announced that he had reached an agreement with Defense Minister Yoav Gallant to establish the committee.

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.”