Opposition slams Israel’s $270 billion budget, says Netanyahu ‘looting public’

ISLAMABAD: Israel’s parliament has approved a sweeping 2026 budget dominated by surging military spending, but opposition leaders say the plan amounts to “looting public” funds as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu expands wars across Gaza, Lebanon and Iran.

The budget passed narrowly, 62–55, just ahead of a legal deadline that would have triggered the government’s collapse and early elections, highlighting the political fragility underpinning Netanyahu’s coalition.

The approved framework sets total spending at approximately $270 billion, with a sharp increase in defense allocations tied directly to Israel’s widening regional conflicts.

Under the plan, more than $10 billion has been added to military spending, bringing the defense budget to over $38 billion.

The increase comes as Israel continues what it calls Operation “Roaring Lion,” its war with Iran, while maintaining ongoing military aggression in Gaza and along the Lebanese border.

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich described the budget as a defining moment for the country.

“We have the capacity to reshape the Middle East. This budget positions the nation to win,” he said, calling it a “historic turning point” for Israel’s security and economic trajectory.

But opposition leaders said the budget reflects a government prioritizing political survival over national interest.

Former prime minister Naftali Bennett, widely seen as one of the leading challengers to Netanyahu in this year’s elections, accused the coalition of diverting billions to maintain power during wartime.

“We are at war… But the government is doing something entirely different: looting the public purse $2.2 billion in political bribery just to preserve the coalition,” Bennett said, describing the plan as the “most reckless and anti-Zionist” in Israel’s history.

Opposition leader Yair Lapid intensified the criticism, calling the budget “the greatest theft in the state’s history.”

He said, “Six billion shekels are coalition funds that this government is allocating to itself — to corruption and draft evasion,” adding that “the Israeli public is not foolish… it understands that this budget is a windfall for the corrupt… celebrating at our expense.”

Yair Golan described the measure as “a working plan for dismantling the State of Israel,” accusing the government of shifting the burden of war onto ordinary citizens while shielding its political base.

Despite sweeping 3% cuts across civilian ministries, the government approved substantial funding increases for ultra-Orthodox institutions and settlements in the occupied West Bank.

Ultra-Orthodox parties are set to receive more than $750 million in additional funding for private schools, while long-term settlement expansion plans worth hundreds of millions of dollars remain intact. The anti-settlement group Peace Now condemned the allocations as “daylight robbery of public funds” benefiting a narrow segment of the coalition.

The budget dispute has been sharpened by growing concern over military strain.

Bennett pointed to warnings from the army’s leadership, saying, “While IDF Chief of Staff [Eyal] Zamir is crying out, ‘I don’t have enough soldiers to win,’ the government is transferring NIS 2 billion to yeshivas that educate people not to enlist.”

The controversy has been compounded by Netanyahu’s delay of legislation that would require ultra-Orthodox men to serve in the military, a move widely supported by the broader Israeli public but opposed by key coalition partners.

The financial debate unfolds against the backdrop of an expanding regional war that critics say Netanyahu has pursued aggressively.

Since October 2023, Israel’s war in Gaza has killed tens of thousands of Palestinians and devastated large parts of the territory, triggering a severe humanitarian crisis.

Fighting has also intensified along the Lebanese border against Hezbollah, while a direct war with Iran since late February, backed by the United States, has opened a new and volatile front.

The widening conflict has drawn international outrage, particularly following a strike on an Iranian school that killed over 150 schoolgirls, further amplifying concerns over civilian casualties and the conduct of the war.

For opposition figures, the 2026 budget encapsulates a broader pattern under Netanyahu: escalating wars abroad while redistributing resources at home to sustain a fragile political coalition.

As Israelis face rising living costs, extended reserve duty and mounting casualties, critics argue the government is deepening both the external conflict and internal divisions.