BICOM

Former-prime minister Ehud Olmert took aim at Prime Minister Netanyahu over the weekend, accusing him of wasting huge amounts of money on unnecessary military projects.

Olmert decided not to run as a candidate in next week’s election, but has firmly thrown his support behind the Kadima Party that he used to lead, which is expected to win only a handful of Knesset seats at best. In an interview on Channel Two on Friday evening, Olmert said that Netanyahu has wasted just under £2 billion over the last two years on “harebrained adventures that haven’t, and won’t, come to fruition,” accusing him of having “scared the world for a year” over the Iranian nuclear programme “and in the end didn’t do anything.”

Netanyahu responded sharply, saying that Olmert’s comments were “bizarre and irresponsible” and defended his government’s spending, which “developed both offensive and defensive capabilities, for the short and long term.” In particular, Netanyahu highlighted investment in constructing the Egypt border fence and deployment of the Iron Dome missile defence system that helped protect Israeli citizens during Operation Pillar of Defence.

However, Olmert retorted yesterday by criticising Netanyahu’s purchase of a Dolphin-class submarine last year, which he called “a megalomaniacal purchase that was done on a whim,” against the advice of Israel’s security establishment. Accusations of overspending were further highlighted yesterday as Israel’s Finance Ministry reported that the 2012 national deficit stands at almost double the target figure of around £3.2 billion. Netanyahu told his cabinet that this represented a deficit of 4.1 per cent as opposed to a predicted 3.9 per cent, commenting “I don’t think this will have significant consequences for Israel’s citizens.” However, Labour Party leader Shelly Yachimovich said that the figures show “Netanyahu is leading the Israeli economy to total collapse.”