The telephone rang this week at the office of the accountant general in the Ministry of Finance. On the line were Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Leader of the Opposition Yair Lapid, and senior figures from the defense establishment who were present in the prime minister’s bureau at the time. The accountant general, Michal Abadi-Boiangiu, is used to calls like this after her previous period as accountant general a decade ago when Netanyahu was prime minister and Lapid was minister of finance.
Abadi-Boiangiu was asked how sources could be found for reopening the defense budget. "Globes" has reported Netanyahu’s intention of busting the budget in order to increase defense spending by tens of billions of shekels. The budget currently stands at NIS 158 billion. The shortfall, according to the defense establishment, amounts to NIS 25 billion. Abadi-Boiangiu replied that insofar as this was a question of reopening the state budget, she was firmly opposed to exceeding the fiscal deficit limit set in the budget at 4.9% of GDP.
According to Ministry of Finance estimates, the deficit will be lower than the limit this year thanks to surprisingly high tax collection. Abadi-Boiangiu stressed that the matter came under the jurisdiction of Budget Commissioner Maharan Frozenfar and Minister of Finance Bezalel Smotrich, who was not a party to the conference call.
Unlike the Budget Division, the accountant general is not of the view that reopening the state budget to increase the defense budget should be rejected out of hand, even in an election period. She points out that the actual fiscal deficit will be lower than the limit by tens of billions of shekels, sufficient to meet most of the army’s demands. She also believes that some of the NIS 400 billion budget for strengthening the IDF can be reserved for future years. Her stance is that slots should be reserved for the IDF and urgently needed munitions should be ordered under contracts that can be cancelled by the next government.
In a press briefing, Abadi-Boiangiu said, "I see 2027 being another complicated year as far as the size of the defense budget is concerned. The rehabilitation budget alone will climb to nearly NIS 14 billion this year, and given a continuing high budget for deploying reserve soldiers, I believe that we won’t see a substantial fall in the proportion of GDP spent on defense."
Published by Globes, Israel business news - en.globes.co.il - on September 16, 2026.
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