Hands off our defense

Ever since we signed a peace treaty with Egypt, we have been involved in reducing defense and security-related expenditures. The process was based on the assessment that the treaty with Egypt removed an existential threat to Israel's existence.

At first, there were cautious cuts in the defense budget, but gradually we turned our surgical knives toward things we thought came under the category of “squandering,” such as the number of days that reserve soldiers train, and the means by which regular soldiers are trained (the amount of time vehicles are kept running, the amount of ammunition used, and so on). All the cuts seemed reasonable, especially since money obtained from the cuts was diverted to the absorption of the huge wave of immigration from the former Soviet Union in the early 1990s, which boosted Israel's hi-tech industry.

In the summer of 2006, we learned once again that there's no such thing as a free lunch. The IDF's conduct in the Second Lebanon War gave anyone who understood what happened there a wake-up call as to what could happen if the defense budget continues to be cut.

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In recent years, Turkey has changed its stripes and the way it sees Israel. We have gone from being Turkey's ally to practically being an enemy. Israel must be prepared to face Erdogan's explicit threat to harm our interests, which is in violation of international law. Preparing for such threats requires a lot of training and money.

In the past few months, watching Cairo's Tahrir Square, our belief that Egypt wants to maintain peace has been dispelled. Maj. Gen. Giora Island (res.) warns that we should be prepared for a dramatic shift in our relations with Egypt, which is all the more reason to equip ourselves properly and think outside the box. The old framework ceased to apply when Mubarak and his regime were ousted. It takes lot of training and money to prepare for new scenarios.

The billions we need to complete the security barrier along the border with Egypt are just the tip of the budgetary iceberg. Our defense and security forces must brace for the possibility that the Arab Spring will also affect Jordan, necessitating an additional increase in the defense budget.

These facts and scenarios are marginal compared with what we need to defend ourselves against the threats emanating from Iran, including an explicit threat of genocide delivered straight from the U.N. podium. These are not empty threats; they are backed by a nuclear program that is advancing at a furious pace.

The disagreement between the Defense and Finance Ministries was already resolved in the Brodet Commission's conclusions, which were approved by the government in 2007. Using the backdrop of the controversial Trajtenberg Committee's recommendations, there are some who are trying to reverse steps taken based on the Brodet Commission's conclusions.

The mass social protests during the summer were justified, borne of the difficulties we face in our daily lives. The problem is timing. In this moment, we need to evaluate the defense budget within the comprehensive framework of events swirling around us in the Middle East.

The Israeli government must avoid cutting the defense budget at this time. Instead, the government must make do with what it can obtain from planned structural changes, including an increase in competition, in tandem with tightened regulations, a tax increase on the wealthy, and an overall increase in tax revenues based on cancelling programs that encourage unemployment among the ultra-Orthodox. It is also important to establish an efficient tax-collection system in sectors where we currently do not collect taxes, such as the Arab sector.

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