Cost of Living
Defence or public services
Health and education should get a bigger share of the budget, even if defence gets less.
In the 2026 budget, Israel's largest ever, defence gets NIS 144 billion, education 97 and health 63.
What is at stake
The 2026 budget, Israel's largest ever at NIS 850 billion, gives defence NIS 144 billion, education 97 and health 63. The war made defence the largest line and left civilian ministries close to frozen. The next budget makes the same call again.
The case for
- Overcrowded classrooms and hospital corridors are a national security question too, over a generation.
- Israel has 2.9 hospital beds per 1,000 people against an OECD average of 4.3. The gap widened during the war.
- Young graduates are leaving, and it is public services rather than tanks that keep them.
The case against
- Israel is coming out of two wars and faces an Iran that was never disarmed. Cutting defence now would be a bad bet.
- Rebuilding munitions stocks and interception systems costs what it costs, whatever the health budget says.
- Health and education suffer from organisation as much as from money. Pouring more in without reform changes little.
Both sides get the same number of points at comparable length. That is a rule of this site, not a coincidence.
What the next Knesset could decide
Every annual budget makes this split again, and it is settled in cabinet and the finance committee rather than on the floor. The coalition agreement usually fixes each ministry's floor in advance.