Speaking at Sunday's cabinet meeting Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said that he agreed with Defense Minister Ehud Barak that the defense budget should not be cut to pay for the new education law, that would provide free education for children three and older. In fact, he said, the budget should be increased.
"We see what is happening from the Atlantic Ocean, from Morocco, to the east; everyone sees this,” Netanyahu said. "And these changes have consequences, I would say, strategic [consequences], for the national security of the State of Israel, for our ability to deal with the new challenges that we face, in new areas, over new weapons, and over the question of regional stability and instability. All of these have been taking place in recent months and we must draw the necessary conclusions. I think that this says that not only can we not cut the security budget, but we must increase it.,” he said. If any cuts were necessary, he added, the defense budget would be the last to be cut.