Israel Defence Forces fights government committee proposals

The Israel Defence Forces (IDF) has a non-military fight on its hands following the publication of the recommendations of the Locker Committee, which suggests a defence budget cap of 59 billion shekels over the next five years. The military has responded by saying that it will fight the recommendations, which include reducing the period of compulsory conscription for service personnel and cancelling early retirement for non-combatant career military personnel.

One critic of the proposals made by the Committee to Evaluate the Defence Budget, Chaim Levinson, asked in Haaretz why it is only the army which has come under such scrutiny. The budget for Israel’s security agencies, he pointed out, has increased by 60 per cent over the course of seven years since Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu entered office in 2008.

“Under a veil of secrecy,” wrote Levinson, “our clandestine organisations increased their budgets by 60 per cent with no oversight of the billions they spend on ‘special measures’.” These bodies, he added, have expanded significantly over the last few years and “urgently require” a similar committee to critique their outpouring of public money. “Imagine the IDF’s budget growing by 60 per cent over seven years. What would the public discourse be then, and how would Knesset members react?”

According to Haaretz, reducing 10 per cent of the security agencies’ budget will provide the treasury and the finance ministry with 700 million shekels; a 10 per cent reduction in the defence budget will save the state 6 billion shekels.