IDF Stung by Billion Dollar Budget Cuts, But Bonus Looms on Horizon
Graphic by Angelie Zaslavsky
It’s best to take with a grain of salt the complaints that will be voiced in the near future by the General Staff about the implications of the cuts included in the state budget passed this week. True, in the years ahead, the Israel Defense Forces will be required to dismiss 4,000 career soldiers (while at the same time 1,000 new ones will enter the career army). The defense establishment will also have to slash NIS 4.5 billion from its budget over the coming 18 months. That, of course, will necessitate adjustments in the IDF’s structure and outlays. However, none of this will generate unprecedented economic pressure on the army.
A bonus looms on the horizon: a gradual increase in the defense budget in the course of the multi-year plan, which is now likely to be approved after two years of procrastination. At the end of the process, within five and a half years, the budget will have soared to a new record of NIS 59 billion a year − NIS 5 billion more than was available to the IDF last year.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who made a point of barely intervening in the Finance Ministry’s ax-wielding, brought the full weight of his office to bear in favor of the defense establishment in the dispute over its budget.
Read more on Haaretz.com.
Why I became the Forward’s editor-in-chief
You are surely a friend of the Forward if you’re reading this. And so it’s with excitement and awe — of all that the Forward is, was, and will be — that I introduce myself to you as the Forward’s newest editor-in-chief.
And what a time to step into the leadership of this storied Jewish institution! For 129 years, the Forward has shaped and told the American Jewish story. I’m stepping in at an intense time for Jews the world over. We urgently need the Forward’s courageous, unflinching journalism — not only as a source of reliable information, but to provide inspiration, healing and hope.
— Alyssa Katz, editor-in-chief
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
