An IDF Officer training ceremony. Photo: Wiki Commons.

JNS.org – The Knesset Subcommittee for the Defense Budget convened Sunday to discuss a request by the Israel Defense Forces to increase its 2015 budget by 2.75 billion shekels ($781 million), which would bring the overall defense budget for next year to NIS 64 billion ($18 billion), Israel Hayom reported.

The committee, which includes members from the Knesset’s Foreign Affairs and Defense and Finance committees, was presented with the military’s multiyear work plan, which has already been approved by Israel’s security cabinet.

“The data presented by the IDF indicates that it will not be able to meet its needs. We will probably have to increase the budget,” Finance Committee Chairman MK Nissan Slomiansky (Habayit Hayehudi) said Sunday.

MK Reuven Rivlin (Likud) asked the IDF officials present at the meeting, “Can you even imagine what could have happened if the cabinet hadn’t approved this increase?”