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Israeli Defense Budget Under Attack

Israeli ministers Yair Lapid and Naftali Bennett, champions of the social justice movement, face a challenge responding to the defense establishment campaign against budget cutbacks, writes Mazal Mualem.  
Israeli soldiers hold flags before placing them on the graves of fallen soldiers during a ceremony at the Mount Herzl military cemetery in Jerusalem, ahead of Memorial Day, April 10, 2013. Israel commemorates its fallen soldiers on Memorial Day, which begins Sunday night. REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun (JERUSALEM - Tags: POLITICS ANNIVERSARY CONFLICT) - RTXYGCO
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Finance Minister Yair Lapid and Trade and Industry Minister Naftali Bennett succeeded in forcing the government into a socioeconomic discourse as a direct result of the tent protests for social justice of 2011. Yet their big test is in whether they will succeed in breaking the state budget pattern in which the defense share reigns supreme. It will be interesting to see how the two will react to the demand to increase the defense budget in light of the increasing number of incidents on the Syrian border, the escalating threats on the southern front, and the never-ending Iranian threat.

Both Bennett and Lapid support cutbacks in defense spending in support of reducing the deficit and preventing cutbacks to the social services budget, or so it would seem based on previous statements they have made. As the well-known Hebrew maxim goes, however, “What you see from there, you don’t see from here.”

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