In recent weeks, newspaper headlines have warned about the "looting" taking place in the state budget. Huge posters at major intersections warned the public that they were being robbed during wartime. In the Finance Committee, opposition MKs lashed out at coalition MKs with calls of theft, robbery and theft. One Knesset member called on Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich to go home, complimenting his image in a "wonderful country." At a press conference last week, even the astonished IDF spokesman was asked what he thought about the budget passed by the coalition. He didn't respond.
The state budget serves as a kind of map that embodies the worldview of its leaders and the priorities within it. Thus, political struggles over areas that remain permanently outside the budget base can teach us about the essential priorities in the Ministry of Finance throughout the ages. Who do professionals see as the center, and which publics are always perceived or defined as a sector?
At the base of the budget are the essential areas (education, security, welfare, health, etc.) and they are renewed almost automatically every year. However, not all funds allocated to these areas are at the base; Some of them are in coalition funds. These are determined in accordance with agreements between the parties and usually relate to certain populations (ultra-Orthodox, settlers, periphery). That is why they are always subject to debate. The debate ahead of the 2024 budget is more intense than ever because the country is engaged in a difficult war, which requires directing all resources to security and rebuilding the home front.
Communities on the margins of the distribution of resources are not perceived as citizens entitled to equal services and rights, but as a budgetary burden, as a sector. We saw this in the opposition's opposition to an increase in the budget earmarked for the implementation of the New Horizon reform in the ultra-Orthodox sector as well. Instead of there being a broad consensus for the necessary salary comparison between teachers in the Haredi education system and those in the state education system, in the political-media discourse Haredi institutions are labeled as institutions of private and partisan education, and require far-reaching changes in order to receive a budget. In a country made up of many constituencies and diverse population groups, each group is a sector. And all sectors receive financial support from the state, regardless of their social and/or economic contribution.
This is also evident from the anger expressed by opposition MKs towards the heads of the Judea and Samaria regional councils who came to the Finance Committee to report on the security distress of their residents. The voices of unity coming from the battlefield apparently did not reach the Knesset.
However, the accusation of looting and the connotation of the looting that took place in the southern communities indicate that these communities are accused of much more than looting the budget. This connects directly to their guilt in the events of October 7. They are accused of sowing division, violence, diverting resources and forces to them, and of not contributing to the army.
The severe attack on border residents in Israel requires the state to shift its economic center of gravity to peripheral areas. After years of budget neglect
Within this, the periphery remains on the margins of the margins. The professionals in the Ministry of Finance hold to the perception of the center of the country as the economic engine, in which maximum resources must be invested, concepts that have not been challenged over time. Not even in light of the fact that in such a small country there are such large gaps between the periphery and the center.
Important items were cut from coalition funds in 2023, such as front-line emergency rooms in the Negev, support for arts centers and placement of teachers in the periphery. Nor did they enter the budget base. But the severe attack on Israel's border residents requires the state to shift its economic center of gravity to peripheral areas. After years of budgetary neglect, the shortages in the social and geographic periphery in the areas of health, security, employment and more are becoming much more urgent.
Ahead of the 2024 budget, it is essential to reverse the worldview that steers the state budget.
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