Former Defense Minister and chairman of the Yisrael Beytenu Party Avigdor Liberman on Thursday called for an increase in Israel’s security budget in the wake of increased security threats.
“Israel’s security forces are in a continued funding squeeze and there’s absolutely no correlation between the defense budget and the level of threat were are facing,” Liberman said at the annual conference of the Institute for National Security Studies (INSS).
“The defense budget must correspond to the level of threats we are dealing with, and these threats are growing constantly,” he continued.
“The security cabinet, the ministerial committee for defense procurement, the budgetary shortfall, the frustration in the senior levels of the IDF – nothing is functioning,” charged Liberman, who added, “The atmosphere now is worse than before the Yom Kippur War. I think we should already appoint the next Agranat Commission.”
Liberman said that Israel needs maintain a dialogue with the US, but do it in private.
“The Biden Administration has its own set of priorities. We have to maintain a dialogue with the administration, any administration, but not publicly and not in interviews, but using the appropriate channels.”