Dispute Over Apache Helicopter Deal Escalates Amid Budget Row
Translated & summarized from Israel Hayom by baba
A dispute has erupted between Israel's Finance and Defense Ministries over funding for a NIS 1 billion Apache helicopter deal. Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich called the delay a "technical issue," while defense officials cited a NIS 40 billion budget shortfall. The government has now approved funds for the deal, sourced partly from cuts to future budgets, including those for Arab society programs. Defense officials warn that significant budget deficits for 2026 and future years remain unresolved.
The story in 5 lines · by baba
- A NIS 40 billion budget gap threatens Israel's Apache helicopter deal, according to defense officials.
- Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich described the funding delay for the Apache deal as a "technical issue."
- The government approved about $1 billion for the Apache helicopters and other defense needs.
- Funds for the deal will come from cuts to future budgets, including those for Arab society programs.
- Defense officials warn that major budget deficits for 2026 and future years remain unresolved.
A dispute between Israel's Finance Ministry and Ministry of Defense over the defense budget has intensified, this time concerning a deal for Apache helicopters. While Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich stated the delay in funds for the deal was due to a technical issue, defense officials presented a different picture, citing a NIS 40 billion budget gap for promised funds that have not yet been transferred. Smotrich explained that the deal was approved in August based on the existing budget, but immediate payments to Boeing became necessary. He added that the Finance Ministry has now located a budgetary source to finalize the deal and that a government decision to allocate NIS 2.6 billion to the military would be transferred today.
However, defense sources claim that despite an agreement with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in June, tens of billions of shekels have not been transferred. They asserted that the defense establishment faces a severe NIS 40 billion budget deficit in 2026, and the funds are urgently needed to meet its missions. The disagreement also centers on how the helicopter deal is being financed. Defense sources indicated that a government-approved cut of approximately NIS 1 billion from future years' budgets was intended to enable the deal's signing after the deadline passed last week. They also noted that the Ministry of Defense secured four deadline extensions from the U.S. government. The funds for the Apache deal, they emphasized, will not come from new budget additions but from deferring payments on other defense contracts. They characterized the cut from future budgets as a technical accounting procedure demanded by the Finance Ministry as a condition for approving the signing.
On Tuesday, the government urgently approved by phone poll the allocation of funds for the Apache helicopter deal, valued at about $1 billion, and for additional defense equipment. Budgetary sources include a broad cut across government ministries and adjustments to budgets for 2027-2029, impacting funds designated for the five-year plan for the Arab society, among other items. Defense officials reiterated concerns that beyond the helicopter deal, a solution for the 2026 budget deficit and the shortage of force-building budgets in the coming years has not yet been found, despite agreements and directives on the matter.
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