Israeli politicians focus on foreign threats, ignoring spiralling debt
Israel’s parliamentary election campaign is in full swing, with politicians talking up their ability to defeat the country’s opponents across the region. But the focus on war and the perceived existential threat to Israel from those opponents masks that few of the most prominent contenders in October’s election are discussing the astronomical cost of the country’s multiple conflicts, and how they plan to deal with it.
Why It Matters
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Key Facts
- Fact 1: Trump remarks on diminishing impact of pro-Israel groups in Congress US diplomat calls Israeli settler siege of West Bank homes ‘act of terror’ Israel’s central bank estimated in its 2025 report that 350bn shekels ($118bn) had been spent on wars in Gaza, Lebanon, Syria and elsewhere between 2023 and 2026, excluding the war on Iran that began in late February.
- Fact 2: In April, the Finance Ministry said that an extra 35bn shekels ($11.8bn) had been spent on that conflict.
- Fact 3: Israel’s defence spending alone accounted for 249bn shekels ($84bn), according to the Bank of Israel’s report – and it is swallowing an ever-bigger share of the economy, almost doubling from 5.2 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) in 2023 to more than 8 percent in 2024.
- Fact 4: The Finance Ministry said it is around 1.4 trillion shekels ($480bn), an increase from 1.07 trillion shekels ($365bn) before October 2023.
Israel’s parliamentary election campaign is in full swing, with politicians talking up their ability to defeat the country’s opponents across the region. But the focus on war and the perceived existential threat to Israel from those opponents masks that few of the most prominent contenders in October’s election are discussing the astronomical cost of the country’s multiple conflicts, and how they plan to deal with it.
Rights groups launch new legal challenge to Trump campaign against ICC Can Trump keep his ‘irritation’ with Netanyahu in check? Trump remarks on diminishing impact of pro-Israel groups in Congress US diplomat calls Israeli settler siege of West Bank homes ‘act of terror’ Israel’s central bank estimated in its 2025 report that 350bn shekels ($118bn) had been spent on wars in Gaza, Lebanon, Syria and elsewhere between 2023 and 2026, excluding the war on Iran that began in late February. In April, the Finance Ministry said that an extra 35bn shekels ($11.8bn) had been spent on that conflict.
(Original synthesis pending human/AI review — generated by the stub provider by selecting real sentences from the source material, not by writing new analysis or commentary.)
Original source: Al Jazeera
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