The government voted in favor of Israel's budget for the next two years on Friday, resulting in a decrease of NIS 2.7 billion, close to the originally planned cut of NIS 3 billion.
A marathon budgetary meeting of over 12 hours was held on Thursday, and the final decisions were made on Friday morning in a meeting between Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, the Finance Ministry's budget director Udi Nissan, various finance ministers and the IDF Chief of General Staff Lt.-Gen Gabi Ashkenazi. At the following government meeting, the budget was approved, with 20 voting in favor, 5 Israel Beiteinu ministers voting against, 4 Shas ministers abstaining and 1 absent, after Minister of Welfare Isaac Herzog left the meeting early."
