Shas and Yisrael Beitenu want a more prolonged period for discussion of the report's recommendations and its shortcomings, and agree with the protest organizers, who claim that Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu is staging a political ambush by holding a quick vote before enough public debate has been held.
Defense Minister Ehud Barak (Independence) also opposes holding the vote now, and wants the budget reopened for debate, so that more of the protesters' demands can be met. At the same time, he is opposed to the deep cut in defense spending that implementation of the committee's recommendations entails.
The Trajtenberg Committee was formed following summer-long tent protests that received free and intensive public relations from Israel's press. The organizers, believed by nationalist skeptics to be a front for leftist politicians pulling the strings, rejected the Trajtenberg report.