Lapid continues to condition support for the defense budget – and attacks the PM

Opposition leader Yair Lapid calls on PM Netanyahu to transfer 11 billion shekels for defense procurement through the joint committee, but again ties this to the cancellation of coalition funds and budgets for the ultra-Orthodox sector. Likud rejects his claims and argues that Lapid is misleading the public and abandoning national security for political considerations.

Opposition leader Yair Lapid continues the confrontation over the defense budget. After conditioning the opposition's support for increasing the budget on the cancellation of coalition funds and budgets for the ultra-Orthodox sector, he called today (Wednesday) on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to immediately transfer 11 billion shekels for defense procurement – and again attacked the government over the allocation of funds. According to Lapid, the joint committee for the defense budget can be convened and the funds that have been pending for months can be transferred for urgent defense procurement, without breaking the budget and raising taxes. Likud rejected the claims and argued that Lapid is presenting a false picture to the public. According to them, state revenues were higher than expected and the deficit was lower than forecasts, so the defense budget can be increased without raising taxes. Likud also attacked the attempt to link the addition to the IDF with the budgets for the ultra-Orthodox sector, and claimed that there have never been such amounts for coalition funds. The party concluded with an attack on the opposition leader: "Lapid is abandoning the security of the State of Israel because of cheap political considerations."