Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressed for the first time on Monday the findings of the Locker report -- a government report calling for deep cuts in military spending -- saying that a new budget plan will integrate the report's conclusions with the Israel Defense Forces' multiyear plan. "[Maj. Gen. (res.)] Yohanan Locker did very important work," Netanyahu said in response to an Army Radio journalist at a Likud faction meeting and referring to the man who led the commission that produced the controversial report. "He worked for a year with excellent people to figure out how to deal with the IDF's defense issues, from a budget perspective and from an internal reforms perspective. "At the same time, the IDF, under the chief of staff and with the guidance of the defense minister, took very important action and prepared a multiyear plan." Netanyahu went on to say, "The challenges in the region have changed, armies have disappeared and new armies have taken their place. I will study the Locker report and the IDF's multiyear framework to see what the most optimal plan is, and afterward I will bring it to a cabinet vote." Most in the political realm do not think that the Locker report will be adopted in its entirety due to significant opposition from officials in the Defense Ministry and the IDF. The report recommends sweeping changes to the conditions afforded to career officers, causing an uproar among military officials who say the changes will harm those in the service. Still, the report has received support from some government ministers, including Education Minister Naftali Bennett and Immigrant Absorption Minister Zeev Elkin. Both believe that the funds currently allocated to career officers cause the defense budget -- which accounts for 15% of the state's overall budget -- to balloon each year. The Locker report estimates that the defense budget will reach 59 billion shekels ($16 billion), while other popular estimates put it at 56 billion shekels ($15 billion). Meanwhile, career officers' wives are protesting against the proposed budget cuts. A group organized to improve the public image of career officers wrote a letter to the prime minister on Monday, calling on him to "stop the media lynch of career officers that has been ongoing for the last several months." S., whose husband is a career officer in the air force, told Israel Hayom, "As the wife of a career officer, I feel this is an enormous betrayal, a knife in the stomach of career officers, who are the only public service group that does not have an organized body to turn to, like the Histadrut [Labor Federation], but is also forbidden to protest or express opinions."
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PM: Locker recommendations to be integrated into military plans
"I will study the Locker report and the IDF's multiyear framework to see what the most optimal plan is, and afterward I will bring it to a cabinet vote," says PM Benjamin Netanyahu in first reaction to controversial Locker report budget cut proposal.