The Cabinet failed to reach a decision today on a disputed additional cut in the defense budget and referred the matter back to the Ministerial Economic Committee which meets again tomorrow in another attempt to resolve the issue. At stake is between IL 1-1.5 billion which Finance Minister Yigal Hurwitz wants to trim from defense expenditures this year in addition to the IL 7 billion cut agreed to a week ago and accepted, albeit reluctantly, by the defense establishment.
The Defense Ministry raised strenuous objectives to any further curtailment of its budget and was supported by Premier Menachem Begin who is serving temporarily as Defense Minister. Last week, Chief of Staff Gen. Raphael Eitan warned that the propose cuts would affect national security and the government “could not” allow them. A senior military source said that when the army accepted the IL 7 billion reduction it was understood to be the final one and the basis for rational planning by the armed forces.
The Cabinet, in effect, approved in principle the IL 5.4 billion overall cut in the State budget. But it called on the Ministerial Economic Committee to determine how the economies will be apportioned among the various ministries. Hurwitz expressed hope that the budget deliberations would be completed tomorrow. He said he was slowly “losing my patience” but he told reporters that this was not a threat of resignation.
Hurwitz had implied several times in recent weeks that he might quit unless the budget is reduced to a size compatible with his war on inflation. At today’s Cabinet session, Begin warned his ministers to be more cautious about resignation threats. He said almost all of them have made such threats, except himself.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
