Israeli government ministers are not involved in drafting the defense budget, and have no input in determining the size of the army and the level of training.
The current method by which Israel’s defense budget is drafted does not require decision-makers to decide on security issues of the first magnitude, and is not conducive to the taking of a comprehensive, long-term view. Thus concluded the Preparatory Team for the Winter Session of the Israel Democracy Institute's Caesarea Forum, to be held on February 13, 2007 at the Dan Caesarea Hotel. The Team proposes that the defense budget be reformed, and notes that problems with the current budget stem from structural flaws, a lack of consensus and cooperation between the Defense and Finance ministries in determining the sources of a multi-year budget, and a basic financial difficulty in estimating the security system's output. The Team, headed by Gen. (res.) Ilan Biran, former Defense Ministry Director-General, has drawn up recommendations for an appropriate drafting process for the defense budget, and has formulated a series of guidelines essential for implementing these recommendations.
Main Recommendations of the Preparatory Team
- Government ministers should share in the responsibility for drafting Israel's defense budget: Israeli government ministers are not involved in drafting the defense budget, and have no input in determining the size of the army and the level of training. Responsibility should be shared with the defense authorities in the context of joint discussions, to conclude with full and official approval of the plans drawn up and of the risks incurred in defining priorities for the defense budget. The Team recommends a process to be spread out over several months during the first half of each year, and to include the following stages: an intelligence stage, a drafting stage, a Finance Ministry stage, a government stage, and a Knesset stage. The purpose of this process is to ensure a structured examination of Israel’s strategic security objectives vis-à-vis the country's available financial resources. The process should result in the drafting of a defense budget that leaves budgetary margins and promulgates clear rules for using them. The entire process should be based on ongoing cooperation between representatives of the Finance and Defense ministries, with the National Security Council representing the Prime Minister and functioning as a coordinating body. Discussions between all of the involved bodies should take place against the background of an extensive and mutually-agreed-upon body of data.
- Multi-year budgetary framework: The Team supports the taking of a long-term view and recommends a multi-year budgetary framework. The Team members feel that a multi-year budget offers many advantages:
- It would require the implementation of a long-term security policy.
- Security-related risks and uncertainties have existential repercussions, and a multi-year budget would help in balancing them, to the extent possible.
- A multi-year framework would give decision-makers the ability to make difficult decisions that are currently almost impossible to make.
- This type of mechanism would decrease friction between the Finance and Defense ministries.
The recommendations will be presented in full for discussion at the Forum's special Winter Session, to be held on February 13, 2007.
Members of the Preparatory Team, headed by Gen. (res.) Ilan Biran: MK Haim Oron, member, Knesset Finance Committee; Harel Belinda, Deputy Budget Director, Ministry of Finance; MK Avshalom Vilan, member, Knesset Joint Committee for the Defense Budget; Gen. (res.) Amos Yaron, former Director General of the Ministry of Defense; Amnon Neubach, economist, former Deputy Budget Director, Ministry of Finance; Dr. Amir Shoham of the College of Management and Sapir