Defense Minister Israel Katz opened Thursday morning’s “Economic Campaign” conference of the National Headquarters for Economic Warfare Against Terrorism at the Defense Ministry, alongside Shin Bet chief David Zini, Mossad chief Roman Gofman, and other senior security officials, including the new head of the body, Yurai Matzlui. Katz said Israel wants to reshape the defense budget over the next decade and develop unprecedented strike capabilities from space.
Katz devoted much of his speech to the economic campaign against Iran’s funding network. He said, "Every dollar to Iran becomes a missile, rocket or UAV," and argued that Tehran has spent decades building a regional terror machine by funneling resources to proxies across the Middle East. "Every dollar that enters the ayatollahs' coffers is a dollar that turned into a ballistic missile in Iran, a drone in Lebanon, a rocket in Gaza and a UAV in Yemen," he said, adding that such money could reach Hezbollah, Hamas, the Houthis and other terrorist proxies. He called the economic war against Iran one of Israel’s most important battlefields and said, "We must not be satisfied with what we have achieved so far."
He then revealed a long-term defense plan based on an extraordinary budget increase. According to Katz, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu decided to add 350 billion shekels to the defense budget over the next decade, above the regular defense budget, for force-building. He said the decision reflects confidence in Israel’s economy and in domestic production capacity, saying that with the exception of aircraft, Israel can build almost everything locally.
Katz’s central strategic message focused on space. He said he and Netanyahu had identified space as a top goal and had instructed the IDF to pursue it. The objective, he said, is not only to operate in space, defend assets there, and disrupt what others place there, but also to act downward from space, including early jamming of systems and eventually kinetic attacks. Katz said no country currently has such a capability, and that Israel should aim to be first in the field in order to secure an advantage in deterrence, strike power, destruction, and other capabilities against enemies with greater resources.
