Premier Menachem Begin plunged into his new tasks as Defense Minister today and pledged that he would fulfill all the functions of that office in addition to his other responsibilities. He held his first conference with members of the General Staff at the Defense Ministry offices here and, prior to that, met with Deputy Defense Minister Mordechai Zipori, Chief of Staff Gen. Raphael Eitan and Yossef Ma’ayan, Director General of the Defense Ministry.
After his two-hour meeting with General Staff officers–which he described as “the most pleasant hours I had for a long time”. –Begin admitted that the controversial question of cuts in the defense budget were raised. He said that no doubt there will be cuts. The only question is to what extent. He noted that the Chief of Staff has already met with Finance Minister Yigal Hurwitz on this matter and further meetings will be held in which he would participate. Hurwitz and Gen. Eitan held their preliminary meeting yesterday. The Chief of Staff reportedly stressed that any substantial cuts in the defense budget would weaken Israel’s military strength. (By Yitzhak Shargil).
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