by Emmitt Barry, Worthy News Correspondent

(Worthy News) – Defying fierce opposition, the coalition pushed the 2025 budget through its final Knesset reading on Tuesday, averting a political crisis and securing a crucial victory for Prime Minister Netanyahu. Failure to pass the budget by the March 31 deadline would have automatically triggered new elections, threatening the government’s survival.

Lawmakers passed the NIS 755 billion ($205B) budget in a 66-52 vote, with Finance Minister Smotrich calling it a responsible wartime plan that includes support for reserve soldiers and recovery efforts in Israel’s north and south, saying the budget had “everything we need to win on the front and on the home front.”

“The State of Israel is facing the longest and most expensive war we have ever known, and by God’s grace, we are succeeding in the mission – supporting all war efforts, placing the reserve soldiers at the top of our priorities with a support package of 9 billion NIS, and managing Israel’s economy responsibly,” Smotrich stated.

“We promoted measures that will support growth and allow the Israeli economy to maintain its strength and continue to prosper. This is a war budget and, God willing, it will also be the victory budget,” Smotrich concluded.

Following an all-night debate over thousands of defeated opposition reservations, the legislation passed in a final vote Tuesday afternoon. With a March 31 deadline looming, failure to pass the budget would have automatically triggered general elections.

The Foreign Ministry will get a NIS 545 million boost, secured by Gideon Sa’ar’s National Unity party, to expand public diplomacy efforts, including weekly media briefings and an AI-powered center for rapid response to global news.

“Israel’s public diplomacy is a crucial and life-saving matter, just like weapons on the battlefield,” Sa’ar said. “We are facing a new form of antisemitism, one that targets the Jewish state, delegitimizes it, and dehumanizes it, while applying double standards against us.”

However, not everyone praised the budget’s passing, as opposition leader Yair Lapid called it “the greatest robbery in the country’s history.”

“Your rulers are rogues and cronies of thieves, everyone avid for presents and greedy for gifts,” Lapid stated, citing the Book of Isaiah.

“In a normal country, during a war, during an economic crisis, the government does not have two ministers in the Education Ministry, two ministers in the Finance Ministry, two ministers in the Defense Ministry,” said Yair Lapid, accusing the government of shifting billions of shekels from the middle class to “people who do not work and do not enlist.”

Ahead of the final vote, opposition leaders, including National Unity chairman Benny Gantz, blasted the budget as a symbol of the government’s “disconnection and shamelessness.”

Gantz warned that while the coalition sees the budget as a path to surviving until 2026, its “arrogance” would only deepen public discontent. He accused the government of abandoning reservists, hostage families, northern residents, and young families, saying the plan lacks “growth engines, incentives for social change, and vision.”

Instead of building for the future, Gantz said, the coalition is “taking the wind out of the sails of the Israeli economy.”

Opposition lawmakers slammed the government for slashing around NIS 3 billion ($814M) from ministries—which impacts the salaries of teachers and social workers—while leaving ultra-Orthodox institutions and ministries labeled “superfluous” by treasury officials untouched.

Copyright 1999-2025 Worthy News. This article was originally published on Worthy News and was reproduced with permission.

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