ISRAEL – The Israeli Knesset on Monday approved the 2026 state budget worth $271 billion (850.6 billion shekels), with $45.8 billion (143 billion shekels) allocated to the Defense Ministry, marking the largest defense allocation in Israel’s history.

The budget passed its final reading in the Knesset by 62 votes to 55.

The vote came ahead of a legal deadline on Tuesday, after which failure to pass the budget would have automatically triggered early elections.

Opposition leader Yair Lapid expressed his displeasure over the budget.

“The greatest theft in the history of the state has been completed,” he wrote on the US social media company X’s platform.

“They took the money from reservists and gave it to draft dodgers. They robbed working people and gave it to the corrupt,” he added.

The budget was approved amid the ongoing US-Israeli war on Iran, which has heightened tensions across the region and fueled a surge in Israeli military spending.