Money (illustrative)
Money (illustrative)Flash 90

The Knesset approved on Monday night the first reading of the state budget for 2015.

58 MKs voted in favor of the proposal, and 46 voted against. No one abstained.

The budget is to be taken to the various Knesset committees which will discuss it and prepare it for its second and third readings, but a disagreement between the Likud, Yisrael Beytenu and Yesh Atid parties over several clauses in the budgets is delaying this process for the time being.

The budget, approved by the Cabinet last month, stands at 328 billion shekels, and includes an increase of 6 billion shekels in defense outlays.

It was originally delayed due to disagreements between Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Finance Minister Yair Lapid over it.

Netanyahu called for an increase of "many billions" of shekels in defense spending following Operation Protective Edge, while Lapid has downplayed the expense of the operation and pushed for a modest defense budget.

The tensions led Netanyahu at one point to suspend discussions over Lapid's controversial 0% VAT Bill that is opposed by hareidi and Arab parties, in a not-so-subtle move to pressure Lapid into greater flexibility. Eventually, Lapid and Netanyahu reached a compromise on the budget.

Outgoing Environment Minister Amir Peretz (Hatnua), who announced just this past Saturday that he would vote against the budget and ultimately resigned over this, chose not to be present in the Knesset plenum during the vote.