Lapid says Netanyahu sought budget reopening for military funds

Enemy media: Lapid’s office said Netanyahu asked during a security briefing between the two men to reopen the budget law in order to allocate additional funds to the defense establishment. Lapid said he supports transferring funds and strengthening the IDF, but not through higher taxes on the middle class and military reservists, and called for canceling coalition funds and the tens of billions of shekels transferred to fund ultra-Orthodox draft evasion, saying the opposition would support the proposal in the Knesset. A separate Israeli source accused Lapid of misleading the public on the defense budget, saying state revenues were higher than expected, the deficit was lower than expected, and the defense budget could be increased without raising taxes; it also said his claim about coalition funds and ultra-Orthodox budgets was baseless.