Israel to slash 2.6 billion shekels from education, health and welfare for 'urgent military purchases'

The Israeli government will be asked Sunday to approve a second round of budget cuts in just four days, this time totaling 2.6 billion shekels (approximately $800 million), to finance what officials describe as "urgent defense procurement." The proposed cuts are substantially larger than the previous 1 billion shekel reduction intended to finance the purchase of 12 Apache attack helicopters. Unlike that measure, which drew most of its funding from the government's five-year development plan for Arab society, the latest proposal calls for an across-the-board reduction in the budgets of government ministries. Under the plan, each ministry would face a uniform cut of approximately 5% to its development and procurement budget, with some of the largest reductions falling on major civilian services. The Education Ministry would lose 285 million shekels, the National Security Ministry 225 million shekels, the health system 150 million shekels and the Welfare Ministry 140 million shekels. However, the government has rejected a recommendation by senior professional officials at the Finance Ministry to finance the urgently needed military purchases by cutting coalition funds, allocations negotiated as part of political agreements between governing parties. Not a single shekel will be deducted from those funds under the proposed plan, leaving civilian ministries to absorb the reductions instead.