The IDF is short NIS 3.3 billion, Deputy Chief of Staff Maj.-Gen. Yair Naveh
told the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee on Monday. Meanwhile,
Education Minister Gideon Sa’ar criticized the Defense Ministry’s constant
“campaigning against government decisions,” saying it brings harm to Israeli
citizens.
At a committee meeting on a freeze of IDF purchases from
factories in the periphery that manufacture components for the Merkava tank,
Naveh said that contract workers – the subject of a Histadrut general strike
that ended on Sunday – are not more important than defense
employees.
Committee chairman Shaul Mofaz (Kadima) said the manufacture
of the Merkava must continue and that stopping orders from these factories will
bring “technological, social and defense crises.” He called on the government to
allow NIS 500 million to be spent on industry, so that the IDF can continue
relevant projects and prevent factory workers from being fired.
According
to Naveh, the current budget has made it impossible for the IDF to grow
stronger, and military exercises will stop from April.
The IDF also froze
the purchase of two Iron Dome missile defense batteries and the Arrow 3 missile
system.
“One can claim that the defense budget grew as compared to last
year, but realistically, this isn’t true,” Naveh said. “It must be said: The IDF
is in a crisis.”
Also on Monday, Sa’ar told the Knesset Education
Committee that the Defense Ministry runs a “campaign of crying and whining”
about budget cuts.
“Every government decision is the basis for a new
campaign,” he said. “We can’t live in a state with one ministry that, the minute
a decision is made, starts a campaign to change it.”
Sa’ar pointed out
that other government offices were “drastically cut” due to defense budget
increases in the past, and as a result, education, health and welfare services
were adversely affected.
“Security is important to all of us, and we
cannot take it lightly, but after receiving additions of billions of shekels,
they cannot complain about cuts,” he added.