No 'blank check' for IDF, Bank of Israel head says amid $67B war

(JNS) — The Jewish state should task a committee with probing the state’s defense budget amid a war that appears poised to cost $67 billion between 2023 and 2025, Amir Yaron, the governor of the Bank of Israel, said on Thursday.

Speaking at the College of Management Academic Studies in Rishon Letzion, Yaron said that “a prosperous economy requires security, and security requires a prosperous economy,” Reuters reported.

“The war should not bring with it a blank check for permanent defense expenditures, and proper balances have to be found,” he added.

The Israeli defense budget “is expected to grow on a permanent basis, with macroeconomic impact,” Yaron said.

The $67 billion estimate includes funding to cover expenses for evacuated civilians.

In January, Ynet reported that the war had already cost about $58.5 billion and that the costs of reservists, who make about $81 daily, had already cost about $2.4 billion. In the first three months of the war alone, Israel paid affected businesses about $3.7 billion, and property damage in communities near the border with Lebanon and near the Gaza Strip totaled up to two-and-a-half times that amount.

In the first three months of the year, the Israeli economy grew at a 14.1 percent annual rate.