A dispute erupted between the Israeli defense and finance ministries, after the former sought to obtain government approval to purchase billions of dollars of US weapons, according to Hebrew media.
Today, Wednesday, the official broadcaster said that the Ministry of Defense will ask the government on Sunday to approve the purchase of massive weapons systems, including the F-15s (F-15) and the “V-22” (V22).
The reason for the disagreement is that the purchase is supposed to be implemented through US aid funds, but due to the lack of a budget for the defense system in the coming years within the aid funds, the Ministry of Defense seeks to allocate a large part of the state budget for the purchase, according to the same source.
The United States allocates $ 3.8 billion in annual aid to Israel until 2028, and the latter uses these funds to buy weapons mainly from Washington.
Wide disagreements
This comes while Israel is witnessing broad differences between the poles of the ruling coalition (Likud and Blue and White) over approving the general budget.
The Israeli Knesset voted in August to postpone the presentation of the budget for a period of 120 days, which expires in December.
Since then, Blue and White and Likud have not found a solution to the budget crisis that Likud wants for one year, while Blue and White wants it for two years. If the budget is not submitted on time, the Knesset will be dissolved and elections will be called.
It is noteworthy that Israel has witnessed 3 elections since April 2019, and the current government was formed in the middle of this year based on a partnership agreement between Likud and Blue and White.