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Bill dissolving the Knesset fails, even after ultra-Orthodox party votes against government

Knesset votes 61 to 53 to reject bill dissolving the Knesset, following last minute deal between the Likud and ultra-Orthodox lawmakers, preventing the government’s collapse.

By David Rosenberg, World Israel News

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition government survived a critical Knesset vote early Thursday morning, after a last-minute deal was struck between ultra-Orthodox lawmakers and a Likud committee chairman.

In the Knesset plenum vote before dawn Thursday, the 120-member body voted 61 to 53 to reject an Opposition bill to dissolve the current Knesset, forcing new elections and toppling the government.

The bill was rejected in a nearly party-line vote, with Opposition lawmakers backing the Knesset’s dissolution, and almost all Coalition MKs opposing.

However, the four-member Agudat Yisrael faction, which represents Hasidic Jews in the larger United Torah Judaism party – which also includes the smaller Degel HaTorah faction – voted with the Opposition in favor of the bill.

Shas and Degel HaTorah both voted against dissolving the Knesset.

Shortly before the vote, ultra-Orthodox lawmakers held intensive negotiations with Likud MK Yuli Edelstein, who chairs the powerful Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee.

Edelstein, a rival of Prime Minister Netanyahu, has called for steps to significantly increase the number of ultra-Orthodox men drafted into the army, and opposed attempts by the ultra-Orthodox parties to pass a new law restoring the draft deferments for yeshivas students.

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The Supreme Court struck down the existing law in 2017, and last year issued a landmark ruling ending extensions for the draft deferments and mandating the mass drafting of yeshiva students formerly covered by the deferment program.

Edelstein announced early Thursday morning that a basic outline for an agreement with ultra-Orthodox lawmakers had been hammered out, forming the basis for new legislation.

“I am pleased to announce that after lengthy discussions, we have reached agreements on the principles that will form the basis of the Draft Law proposal,” Edelstein tweeted.

“As I have said all along, only a genuine bill will come out of the committee I chair. This is historic news, and we are on the way to a real correction in Israeli society and to strengthening the security of the State of Israel.”

Degel HaTorah’s rabbinic council instructed the faction’s MKs to vote against the Knesset dissolution bill Thursday morning, after the deal with Edelstein was reached.

No details of the agreement have yet been published.

Agudat Yisrael issued a statement announcing its support for the dissolution of the Knesset, noting that no draft of a new bill reinstating deferments for yeshiva students has yet been presented.

“As of this moment, no draft law or written proposal detailing the law regulating the status of yeshiva students has been submitted. Therefore, we are acting in accordance with the clear directive of our revered rabbis, members of the Council of Torah Sages, may they live long, and will support the proposal to dissolve the Knesset if it comes to a vote.”