Israel’s coalition government in March moved to pass the 2026 state budget without a highly debated draft exemption law, which was temporarily shelved.

By JNS

Rabbi Dov Landau, a leading figure in Israel’s Lithuanian Haredi community, on Tuesday ordered ultra-Orthodox lawmakers to “work toward dissolving the Knesset as soon as possible.”

“From this point onward, we will do only what is good for the Haredi community and the world of Torah study,” Landau announced in a statement cited by the Ynet outlet.

“We have no trust” in Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, he added.

Earlier on Tuesday, lawmakers from the ultra-Orthodox Degel HaTorah faction were summoned to Landau’s home after Netanyahu told ultra-Orthodox parties there was no majority to pass legislation exempting yeshivah students from military service before elections due by Oct. 27, Channel 12 News reported.

The United Torah Judaism Party, which comprises the Degel HaTorah and the Chassidic Haredi Agudat Yisrael faction, was awaiting approval from its rabbis to schedule a vote to dissolve the Knesset, triggering a snap election.

A senior party official told Channel 12 on Tuesday, “The show is over.”

Meanwhile, an official in the Sephardic ultra-Orthodox party, Shas, told the broadcaster that “we are coordinating with Degel HaTorah, and the decision on dissolving the Knesset will be made jointly with them and with Netanyahu.”

Israel’s coalition government in March moved to pass the 2026 state budget without a highly debated draft exemption law, which was temporarily shelved.

“We are now putting aside controversial issues that are not suitable for wartime,” said Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, citing both the legislation that would exempt haredi yeshivah students from military service as well as several unspecified proposed reforms.

The enlistment bill that was under consideration reflects Netanyahu’s attempt to forge a compromise with his Haredi political partners.

However, two weeks ago, Israel’s Supreme Court, sitting as the High Court of Justice, ordered the government to take a series of measures against ultra-Orthodox draft evaders in response to petitions accusing the state of contempt of court for failing to enforce existing conscription laws.

The decision came in the wake of a November ruling ordering the state to formulate sanctions to enforce military conscription, stressing that government benefits should not be granted to those evading service.

Israel’s ultra-Orthodox sector generally considers national service a distraction from Torah study and a threat to their way of life.

However, Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, onslaught on Israel and the ensuing War of Redemption have heightened demands by the general public that Haredim contribute to the Jewish nation’s defense.

Between 63,000 and 66,000 young Haredi men studying in yeshivahs are legally required to serve.

Since the Hamas terrorist attacks in southern Israel, more than 1,000 haredim have voluntarily enlisted, and a similar number have volunteered for civilian national service.

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Ultra-Orthodox lawmakers reportedly believe draft law will not pass in the current Knesset, will now work to force early elections.

By World Israel News Staff

Ultra-Orthodox lawmakers have lost patience with efforts by the Netanyahu government to pass legislation reinstating annual army draft deferments for yeshiva students and are increasingly convinced that the bill crafted by the ruling Likud party will not be approved by the Knesset before the next election, according to a report published Monday by Israel’s Channel 12.

For more than a year and a half, ultra-Orthodox lawmakers from the Shas and United Torah Judaism parties have pressed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to ensure swift passage of a new draft law restoring the draft deferments, after the Supreme Court ended the practice in 2024.

The court had struck down the previous draft law in 2017, but granted the state repeated extensions, due to the political crisis from November 2018 to November 2022, the coronavirus pandemic, and the wars with Hamas, Iran, and Hezbollah.

MK Yuli Edelstein, a rival of Netanyahu within the Likud, had stymied efforts by UTJ and Shas to secure the restoration of the draft deferments, leading to a coalition crisis that was resolved with his removal as committee chairman.

While his replacement, MK Boaz Bismuth (Likud), oversaw the crafting of a bill ultra-Orthodox lawmakers ultimately accepted, the bill has been held up for weeks by the Knesset’s legal adviser, who has expressed opposition to the current version under consideration.

Now, according to Monday’s report, ultra-Orthodox MKs have reached the conclusion that the stalemate will not be overcome during the current Knesset.

As such, they are expected to push for early elections, moving the next Knesset vote up from its tentatively scheduled date of October 27.

“We are left with three possible dates for elections: June, September, or October,” said Channel 12’s Amit Segal.

The debate between the Knesset’s legal adviser and ultra-Orthodox lawmakers centers around the fate of yeshiva students who have already been called up for army duty, failed to enlist, and now face government sanctions.

While Shas and UTJ have demanded that once the bill passes, sanctions be lifted on those covered by the law, the Knesset’s legal adviser has argued that the law cannot retroactively lift sanctions on those facing punitive actions prior to the bill’s passage.

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His planned law includes NIS 1 million toward a first home, free daycare and steep utility discounts.

By Batya Jerenberg, World Israel News

Former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett vowed Monday to pass legislation granting sweeping benefits to reservists if he forms the next government after elections scheduled for October.

Speaking at a press conference, Bennett said his proposed “Service-Members Law” would provide active reservists with a NIS 1 million grant toward the purchase of a first home, along with a 50% discount on state services, including electricity and water bills, property taxes and public transportation.

To ease the burden on young families, the plan also includes free daycare until age three and free summer programs for school-age children.

Those who have completed their army or national service would also receive attractive perks in the law.

Israelis who completed either military or national service would also receive significant benefits under the proposal.

These include priority in state housing tenders, a monthly NIS 1,000 daycare stipend for children aged 0–3, free after-school care, free summer camp in schools for older children, and free public transportation for three years.

Those who served in combat roles will be able to travel cost-free for five years. And while all eligible veterans would receive full state funding for a bachelor’s degree, combat veterans would also qualify for a fully funded master’s degree.

Bennett said that the funding will be taken from all the money used to fulfill promises made to entice parties into the coalition, and funds currently transferred “to the draft evaders,” referring to the ultra-Orthodox (haredi) sector which has very low participation rates in the IDF or does national service in civilian settings such as schools and hospitals.

More savings would come from closing unnecessary government ministries, he said.

This adds up to NIS 25 billion, according to Bennett.

Simply thanking the serving public is not enough, he said. The people who share in the burden of serving the country should be “at the top of the pyramid, and those who choose to shirk – at the bottom,” Bennett said.

He described his proposal as “a game changer that fundamentally changes your life, your future and your family.”

Bennett said the initiative was a direct response to what he called the government’s “contemptible draft evasion law,” which critics argue will not significantly increase ultra-Orthodox enlistment to the levels the IDF needs because it lacks meaningful personal sanctions.

Bennett’s plan is focused on incentivizing all populations to serve.

“You will see how this law would bring thousands of haredi young people to join us in the IDF,” he said.

Bennett added that any party joining his future coalition would be required to cancel any draft law passed by the current government and adopt his legislation instead.

According to a Channel 12 poll Thursday, Bennett’s party, which he has yet to name or announce its Knesset candidates, is projected to win 21 Knesset seats, placing it second behind Likud, which leads with 26 mandates.

Overall, the anti-Netanyahu bloc of Jewish parties stands at 59 seats — two short of a governing majority.

Two potential allies, Benny Gantz’s Blue and White Party and a new faction called “The Reservists,” which calls first and foremost for equal sharing of the military burden, are currently polling below the electoral threshold, at 2.7% and 2% respectively.

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Israeli Supreme Court orders the government to explain why it has not extended the universal draft to the country’s Arab population.

By World Israel News Staff

The Israeli Supreme Court on Tuesday chastised the government for failing to apply the universal draft law to the country’s Arab sector, more than a year after the court handed down a landmark ruling requiring steps to induct thousands of ultra-Orthodox men into the IDF.

A three-judge panel made up of Chief Justice Yitzhak Amit and Associate Justices David Mintz and Yechiel Kasher ordered the government to explain by March 1, 2026, why the state has never established a comprehensive draft policy for Israel’s Arab minority.

The order was issued in response to a petition by an ultra-Orthodox Jewish man, Mordechai Yair Balens, who challenged the ongoing efforts by the government to draft thousands of ultra-Orthodox yeshiva students.

The petition was reportedly backed by MK David Amsalem (Likud) and noted efforts by the state to draft tens of thousands of yeshiva students on the basis of a June 2024 ruling ending the longstanding policy of draft deferments for full-time yeshiva students.

While Israeli law mandates a universal draft, in practice, various groups within Israel have been exempted either de facto or de jure from service.

Since the establishment of the state in 1948, the Defense Ministry has declined to issue draft orders to most of Israel’s Arab community, which makes up about 21% of the country’s total population.

By the 1950s, the army had reached agreements with the leadership of both the Druze and the Circassian communities within the Arab sector, under which Druze and Circassian men are drafted into the army while the women from both groups are exempt.

No blanket exemptions were granted to Orthodox Jews, though religious Jewish women were permitted to request service exemptions and men who learn full time in yeshivas could request annual service deferments.

While the deferment requests can be denied at the army’s discretion, traditionally ultra-Orthodox students have largely been able to avoid the draft.

The Supreme Court has repeatedly struck down laws codifying the deferments, while successive governments have passed new versions amending the deferment system.

The most recent law was passed a decade ago, only to be struck down in 2017.

Amid a political crisis which saw a string of deadlocked Knessets from 2019 to 2022, along with the COVID-19 pandemic and the Gaza war, the government requested extensions from the court delaying the nullification of the 2015 draft law.

When the court refused to grant further extensions last year, it triggered a wave of draft orders for yeshiva students who suddenly found themselves without deferments.

The ruling sparked a backlash from ultra-Orthodox leaders, who argued that the IDF was both unprepared for and unwilling to draft tens of thousands of ultra-Orthodox men.

Critics also pointed to the inconsistencies in the application of the supposedly universal draft, noting among other things the de facto exemption for most of the Arab sector.

Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara, an appointee of the previous government who has been targeted by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition for removal, has backed efforts to draft ultra-Orthodox men en masse while rejecting comparisons to the situation in the Arab sector.

Writing to the court in September in response to Balens’ petition, Barahav-Miara wrote that there was a “relevant difference” between the Arab and ultra-Orthodox sectors, noting that the policy of not applying the draft law to Arabs has existed since Israel’s establishment.

There are, she claimed, “significant differences between the characteristics of the two groups” that prove there is “no basis for the claim of a violation of equality.”

Last month, the government’s representative informed the court that the state has no plans to dictate a policy to the IDF regarding the drafting of Arab citizens.

The disclosure highlighted the unofficial nature of the distinction in how the draft law is enforced, with the de facto exemption of an entire sector based entirely on army policy, without grounding in any law or government decision.

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Lapid proposes singling out the ultra-Orthodox Jewish community by barring those who do not serve in the army of the right to vote and receive state funding.

By World Israel News Staff

Israel’s opposition leader called Monday for ultra-Orthodox Jews who do not serve in the Israeli military to lose the right to vote and to deny them access to state funds.

As the Netanyahu government continues its efforts to pass a new draft law, reinstating the annual draft deferments offered to full-time yeshiva students, Opposition Leader Yair Lapid blasted the proposed draft law and proposed an alternative solution to the ongoing draft law crisis.

Addressing members of his Yesh Atid party at a faction meeting, Lapid called for legislation that would bar Israeli Jews who do not serve in the IDF from voting in elections or receiving any state funds.

“I say…to the ultra-Orthodox: If this thing gets passed, then in the next government, there will be a simple law. Anyone who doesn’t go to the army induction office, doesn’t go to the ballot box.”

“Whoever doesn’t enlist, doesn’t vote. Anyone who doesn’t serve, doesn’t get a single shekel from the state. What has been until now will not be any longer.”

Lapid claimed that the proposal was not intended as a punitive step, calling it an “invitation” to ultra-Orthodox Jews to integrate into Israeli society.

“We’ll tell the ultra-Orthodox: This isn’t against you, and it’s not a punishment.

“On the contrary, it’s an invitation to be part of the Israeli story, of our shared destiny, of a country where everyone has the same obligations – otherwise, they can’t have the same rights.”

The former prime minister pointed to a bill proposed by the Yisrael Beytenu party in March which was rejected by the Knesset, suggesting he would push for similar legislation.

“We will bring that bill back without batting an eye,” Lapid said.

The bill proposed by Yisrael Beytenu this March would have nullified voting rights for citizens who fail to enlist after receiving draft orders.

While Yisrael Beytenu party chairman Avigdor Liberman defended the bill on X in March, claiming it would apply equally to all draft refusers regardless of ethnicity, in practice, the law would have little impact on most of Israel’s Arab community.

Muslim and Christian Arabs do not receive draft notices from the Defense Ministry, even though there is no formal exemption.

The entire Jewish population – including men and women – along with Druze and Circassian men – are included on the IDF’s draft rolls, though Orthodox Jewish women are granted service exemptions, with full-time yeshiva students able to apply for annual draft deferments.

This arrangement places ultra-Orthodox Jewish men and Israeli Arabs who do not serve in the IDF in separate legal categories, leaving only the former liable for the loss of voting rights under the Yisrael Beytenu proposal.

Lapid’s comments Monday received criticism from both the Israeli Left and Right.

In an opinion piece published in the far-left Ha’aretz newspaper, Hebrew University Professor Emeritus of Law Mordechai Kremnitzer derided Lapid’s plan as an “empty proposal.

“When you look at him you rub your eyes — you cannot believe what you see.”

Kremnitzer added that while the law was clearly aimed at ultra-Orthodox Jews, the precedent could be used later to strip Arab Israelis of the right to vote.

MK Boaz Bismuth, a Likud lawmaker who chairs the Knesset’s powerful Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, said the proposal shows “once again,” that Lapid “doesn’t understand security or democracy.”

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MK Meir Porush accused Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara of fueling dangerous divisions in Israeli society over the military draft issue.

By World Israel News Staff

A lawmaker from an ultra-Orthodox (haredi) party warned that forcibly drafting religious Jewish young men into the Israeli army could lead to “civil war” in Israel.

The warning came following recent government efforts to crack down on yeshiva students who fail to respond to summons for military duty.

Two students were recently arrested for allegedly ignoring draft orders, sparking outrage within the ultra-Orthodox community.

The arrests ignited mass protests and prompted threats from ultra-Orthodox leaders that they would take “global action” against the government to prevent further arrests.

“We are getting closer to a situation of a civil war in the State of Israel between the haredim [ultra-Orthodox] and the secular Israelis,” MK Meir Porush of the United Torah Judaism party told Israel National News on Sunday.

“All this is inspired by the Attorney General [Gali Baharav-Miara]. This is what she is causing,” Porush said from a protest encampment outside her office.

The military draft exemption for religious Jewish men has long been a contentious issue in Israel.

The Supreme Court ruled the IDF’s blanket exemption policy as unconstitutional in June 2024, requiring the Knesset to enshrine the exemptions for yeshiva students into law.

Political resistance — since such a law would be unpopular with most Israeli voters — has stalled legislation.

With no legal exemption currently in place, Attorney General Baharav-Miara ordered the IDF to issue draft notices to thousands of ultra-Orthodox men. Those who refuse to respond to the summons, as many rabbis have instructed their followers to do, now face the risk of arrest.

“I cannot sit comfortably in my office when the military is roaming around at night and arresting yeshiva students. It is my duty as a public representative to express our protest against the measures demanded by the attorney general,” Porush told Hebrew-language media at a press conference.

“If the persecution of Torah students does not stop, it will lead to disaster for the people of Israel,” he declared.

Speaking to the haredi outlet Kikar HaShabbat, Porush doubled down on his comments, warning of widespread internal chaos over the draft issue.

“You can’t go to war with some 1.25 million ultra-Orthodox citizens who want to live here in a certain way,” he said, adding that without an immediate solution, internal divisions would “grow, and no one will be able to stop it.”

“If young men get arrested it will definitely escalate into a conflict… There would definitely be a terrible fight here,” Porush stressed.

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In total, the army has now issued approximately 78,000 summonses to Haredi men between the ages of 17.5-28 during the 2024 draft year.

By Pesach Benson, TPS

The Israeli Defense Forces completed the distribution of 54,000 first-order draft summonses to Orthodox men, the army said on Wednesday night, signaling the start of a new enforcement phase that will further strain Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government.

Arrest operations are expected to begin in September for Orthodox Haredi men who fail to report for recruitment.

This large-scale draft effort coincided with a high-level emergency conference of Haredi rabbinic leaders, who declared total opposition to the draft.

“It is forbidden to go into a military framework under any circumstances,” read a joint statement. “Every young man and woman must stand firm in their faith and not be tempted to go into the army.”

Rabbi Meir Zvi Bergman, a senior figure in the Degel HaTorah faction of the United Torah Judaism party, warned that “a Haredi who enters the army does not leave it as a Haredi” and called on students to resist, even at great personal cost.

In total, the army has now issued approximately 78,000 summonses to Haredi men between the ages of 17.5-28 during the 2024 draft year.

The IDF clarified that this stage constitutes only the “first order” — an initial call to appear at a recruitment office. Failure to respond triggers a second and third order, followed by a warning, and ultimately an arrest warrant.

Arrest operations, coordinated with the Israel Police, will focus on public spaces such as city entry points, intersections, and Ben Gurion Airport. Haredi men who ignore their summonses may be declared fugitives within six weeks of noncompliance.

At the same time, the army emphasized its intent to respect the lifestyle needs of Haredi recruits.

“The IDF will continue to act according to the law and directives of the political echelon,” said a military spokesperson, “and will do everything in its power to expand recruitment and adapt the conditions of service to the Haredi population.”

Netanyahu’s Haredi partners, Shas and United Torah Judaism, quit the government in mid-July over the government’s stalled legislative efforts to grant exemptions to yeshiva students.

The move technically leaves Netanyahu’s government with 50 of the Knesset’s 120 seats. However, it came shortly before the start of the Knesset’s summer recess, giving the Prime Minister time to resolve the issue.

Haredi men in Israel are generally exempt from mandatory military service if they study full-time in religious seminaries, known as yeshivot.

The issue has long divided Israeli society and remains politically sensitive, especially during wartime. Shas and UTJ insist on preserving these exemptions as a matter of religious principle and community identity.

However, public opposition has grown. After nearly 22 months of war, many Israelis view the policy as unequal.

The military began making plans to draft yeshiva students after Israel’s High Court of Justice ruled in in 2024 that exemptions for the Haredi community were illegal.

Military service is compulsory for all Israeli citizens. However, Israel’s first Prime Minister, David Ben-Gurion, and the country’s leading rabbis agreed to a status quo that deferred military service for Haredi men studying in yeshivot, or religious institutions.

At the time, no more than several hundred men were studying in yeshivot.

The Orthodox community has grown significantly since Israel’s founding. In January 2023, the Central Bureau of Statistics reported that Haredim are Israel’s fastest-growing community and projected it would constitute 16% of the population by the end of the decade.

According to the Israel Democracy Institute, the number of yeshiva students exceeded 138,000 in 2021.

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The immediate cause of the walkout was the government’s failure to advance legislation formalizing the Haredi draft exemption.

By Pesach Benson, TPS

The Orthodox Shas party quit the Israeli government on Wednesday, but a decision not to immediately topple the government gives Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu time to resolve the thorny issue of mandatory army service for yeshiva students.

Although the move technically leaves Netanyahu’s government with 50 of the Knesset’s 120 seats, Shas’ Council of Torah Sages instructed party officials not to support any vote of no confidence before parliament’s summer recess. The three-month break begins July 27.

Interior Minister Moshe Arbel, Health Minister Uriel Buso, Minister of Welfare and Social Affairs Yaakov Margi, are expected to submit their resignations on Thursday.

Shas was widely expected to withdraw after its political partner, the United Torah Judaism party (UTJ) left the government on Monday.

Haredi men in Israel are generally exempt from mandatory military service if they study full-time in religious seminaries, known as yeshivot.

The issue has long divided Israeli society and remains politically sensitive, especially during wartime. Shas and UTJ insist on preserving these exemptions as a matter of religious principle and community identity.

However, public opposition has grown. After 21 months of war, many Israelis view the policy as unequal.

The immediate cause of the walkout was the government’s failure to advance legislation formalizing the draft exemption.

A previous compromise brokered by Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee chairman Yuli Edelstein had briefly postponed the crisis, but that version of the bill was pulled from the agenda in recent days.

Three specific points remain unresolved in the current legislation: canceling draft notices already sent to religious students; determining who controls the “exceptions committee” that grants individual exemptions; and the scope of financial penalties for seminaries whose students fail to meet government-set enlistment targets.

Edelstein wants the military to retain full control over the process and is pushing for tougher sanctions — including canceling state funding entirely if fewer than 75% of required enlistments are met.

The military began making plans to draft yeshiva students after Israel’s High Court of Justice ruled in in 2024 that exemptions for the Haredi community were illegal.

The army told lawmakers it faces a critical manpower shortage, needing approximately 12,000 new recruits, including 7,000 combat soldiers and seeks to recruit 4,800 Haredi men annually, a figure expected to rise over time.

Military service is compulsory for all Israeli citizens. However, Israel’s first Prime Minister, David Ben-Gurion, and the country’s leading rabbis agreed to a status quo that deferred military service for Haredi men studying in yeshivot, or religious institutions. At the time, no more than several hundred men were studying in yeshivot.

The Orthodox community has grown significantly since Israel’s founding. In January 2023, the Central Bureau of Statistics reported that Haredim are Israel’s fastest-growing community and projected it would constitute 16% of the population by the end of the decade.

According to the Israel Democracy Institute, the number of yeshiva students exceeded 138,000 in 2021.

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Departure of the United Torah Judaism party leaves Netanyahu with a bare-minimum majority of 61 MKs in the Knesset, as second party hints it may leave as well.

By JNS

The United Torah Judaism Party on Monday night abandoned the coalition led by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in protest against the government’s failure to pass a draft law exempting ultra-Orthodox men from military service.

The announcement came after Degel HaTorah, a faction of the United Torah Judaism Party, received a letter on Monday from members of the Council of Torah Sages, a rabbinical policymaking body, instructing it to resign immediately from the coalition if a draft law wasn’t presented by Monday, Kan News reported.

Degel Hatorah’s sole representative in the Netanyahu government, Deputy Transportation Minister Uri Maklev, submitted his official resignation on Tuesday morning, along with Knesset Member Moshe Gafni, who stepped down as head of the Knesset Finance Committee.

Meanwhile, Yaakov Asher left his position as chairman of the Knesset Interior and Environment Protection Committee, the party announced.

The Shas party has signaled its intention to leave the coalition next week.

United Torah Judaism and Shas hold a total of 18 Knesset seats in the 68-seat coalition.

Aryeh Deri, the head of Shas, said that the Haredi parties would try to legislate the draft law from outside the government. Their goal is to see the law passed by July 27, when the Knesset’s summer session ends, Kan News wrote.

These parties reportedly relaxed their demands for a draft law in June as their leaders were informed of the impending attack on Iran.

Following the attack, however, the Haredim had expected a draft bill to be presented. When it was not, they returned to threatening the coalition’s stability.

A senior official in one of the ultra-Orthodox parties told Kan last week: “Everything that was promised to us on the eve of the attack in Iran has been canceled. We have lost faith in them.”

The Haredi community faces widespread anger in Israeli society for opposing sending its young men to serve in the army.

Israel’s Supreme Court ruled last year, following the expiration of a previous exemption law in 2023, that the state must begin drafting Haredi men into the Israel Defense Forces.

This year, the IDF began initiating criminal proceedings against Haredi draft candidates who fail to report for enlistment.

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The draft legislation has been at the heart of intense coalition infighting, especially since a crisis erupted last month over disagreements on enforcement.

By Pesach Benson, TPS

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s departure for Washington was delayed Sunday as tensions escalated with his Haredi Orthodox coalition partners over the contentious military draft law.

Shas and United Torah Judaism threatened to boycott Monday’s Knesset session unless they received a preliminary draft of the proposed legislation, forcing an 11th-hour scramble in Jerusalem. Reports suggested that the delayed departure would be brief.

Under pressure, Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee Chairman Yuli Edelstein presented the core points of the draft to Shas MK Ariel Atias.

Though not a finalized bill, Edelstein’s associates stressed that the version shared reflects the law’s current trajectory. The move came amid threats by the Haredi factions to paralyze the coalition, a dramatic escalation from their earlier position to only boycott private member bills.

“If Yuli Edelstein, under pressure from Netanyahu, presents the law to the ultra-Orthodox before presenting it to soldiers and reservists, this sums up the whole story of the evasion law,” said opposition leader Yair Lapid.

Opposition members serving on the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee echoed Lapid’s criticism, accusing Edelstein of surrendering to coalition pressure and sidestepping proper legislative procedure.

They claimed the bill was being shaped in closed-door talks and would be handed to the committee as a fait accompli.

The draft legislation has been at the heart of intense coalition infighting, especially since a crisis erupted last month over disagreements on enforcement.

On June 12, Edelstein and Haredi leaders reached a compromise: the inclusion of immediate personal sanctions on draft evaders in exchange for the softening of certain financial penalties.

For example, Edelstein had pushed to raise the Haredi draft quota from 70% to 75%, but agreed to reduce the impact on early childhood subsidies in order to avoid undermining Haredi employment.

If passed, the law will impose immediate personal sanctions on draft evaders, including denial of a driver’s license, travel restrictions, and revocation of academic subsidies and affirmative action benefits in the public sector.

If draft targets are not met within six months, further penalties such as the removal of dormitory and transit subsidies will kick in. After one year, partial National Insurance payments will be revoked, and after two years, daycare subsidies and housing aid will also be cut.

Despite the tough sanctions, the law will begin with modest targets: no Haredi conscripts in the first year, 5,700 in the second, and a gradual increase to 50% of the eligible Haredi cohort by 2030.

The proposed outline allows for a 95% compliance rate to be considered full fulfillment, with the draft age set between 18 and 26.

The military began making plans to draft yeshiva students after Israel’s High Court of Justice ruled in 2024 that exemptions for the Haredi community were illegal.

The army told lawmakers it faces a critical manpower shortage, needing approximately 12,000 new recruits, including 7,000 combat soldiers and seeks to recruit 4,800 Haredi men annually, a figure expected to rise over time.

Military service is compulsory for all Israeli citizens. However, Israel’s first Prime Minister, David Ben-Gurion, and the country’s leading rabbis agreed to a status quo that deferred military service for Haredi men studying in yeshivot, or religious institutions. At the time, no more than several hundred men were studying in yeshivot.

However, the Orthodox community has grown significantly since Israel’s founding.

In January 2023, the Central Bureau of Statistics reported that Haredim are Israel’s fastest-growing community and projected it would constitute 16% of the population by the end of the decade.

According to the Israel Democracy Institute, the number of yeshiva students exceeded 138,000 in 2021.

Netanyahu was due to depart for Washington on Sunday afternoon, where he is scheduled to to meet U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday.

Trump has intensified his push for a Gaza deal. However, talks remain stalled, with Hamas demanding a permanent end to the war and Israel insisting on a temporary truce that preserves its right to resume fighting.

Netanyahu’s discussions are also expected to focus on the next steps with Iran, thawing Israeli-Syrian relations, and finalizing elements of a U.S.-Israel trade agreement.

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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.

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.”

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“Government stability is important for addressing the Iranian issue,” Huckabee reportedly told Haredi leaders threatening to topple the coalition.

By World Israel News Staff

U.S. Ambassador Mike Huckabee is holding meetings with members of the Haredi (ultra-Orthodox) parties, who are currently threatening to topple the current government headed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu due to the coalition’s failure to pass a law granting the religious community widespread exemptions from military service.

According to Hebrew-language TV news station Channel 13, Huckabee – a staunchly pro-Israel Evangelical Christian and ordained Baptist minister – is working to help stabilize the coalition.

During meetings with Haredi leaders, which were said to include senior Haredi political leaders, Huckabee reportedly stressed that “government stability is important for addressing the Iranian issue.”

Last Thursday, Huckabee urged Minister of Jerusalem Affairs and Jewish Tradition Meir Porush, of the Haredi United Torah Judaism party, “not to break up the government,” the outlet reported.

While Huckabee himself did not confirm or deny the existence of the discussions, a representative from his office said that the ambassador is “holding meetings with various Israeli figures.”

The source from Huckabee’s office added that “the content of those conversations remains private.”

Opposition Leader Yair Lapid, the head of the center-left Yesh Atid party, said he was disturbed by the report. In a tweet, Lapid wrote that that Huckabee’s measures would be an overreach for a foreign diplomat.

“Since I have no doubt that Ambassador Huckabee respects Israel’s independence and its democracy, I hope and believe that the report that he is interfering in Israel’s internal politics and trying to help Netanyahu [deal with] the ultra-Orthodox in the military draft law crisis are not true. Israel is not a protectorate,” Lapid wrote on social media platform X.

Last week, the United Torah Judaism party announced it would vote to dissolve the government over the coalition’s inability to pass a law that would permit young religious men to skip military service.

The Shas party followed suit several days later, saying it also intended to support the measure to disperse the Knesset and trigger early elections.

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The plan includes wide-ranging economic and social benefits, including increased tax credits, grants for employers of reservists, discounted access to government housing programs, and special grants for discharged soldiers.

By Pesach Benson, TPS

The Israeli government on Sunday approved an NIS 3 billion ($840 million) benefits package for reserve soldiers in support for those serving on the front lines and their families, one of the largest single investments ever made in support of its reserve forces.

The move comes as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Haredi Orthodox coalition partners issued veiled threats to trigger elections amid a deepening crisis over stalled legislation exempting Haredi yeshiva students from military service.

“Our reservists do everything for the country. We need to give them everything. Our rule is simple: whoever contributes to the country will be rewarded with compound interest. And that is what we did today — in a series of very dramatic decisions, in billions of shekels,” said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

The plan includes wide-ranging economic and social benefits, including increased tax credits, grants for employers of reservists, discounted access to government housing programs, and special grants for discharged soldiers.

Reservists will also receive a personal digital wallet for leisure and welfare expenses, valued at up to NIS 5,000 ($1,400).

Additional support includes aid for small businesses owned by reservists, assistance with admission to civil service roles, benefits for immigrant reservists, and prioritized access to government services.

“Reservists carry the burden of war on their backs, they and their families, women and children,” Defense Minister Israel Katz said.

“Today we took another step in promoting justice for reservists. We added another NIS 4 billion shekels [$1.1 billion] totaling NIS 20 billion [$5.6 billion] for aid — not only for reserve soldiers, but for families, children, the wounded, and everyone connected to express our appreciation, to help them in a practical way.”

In recent days, thousands of reservists received orders to report for duty ahead of a widely-anticipated expansion of fighting in Gaza.

The Shas and United Torah Judaism parties hinted over the weekend they would boycott Knesset votes.

On Monday, the Knesset’s Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee will meet behind closed doors, where committee chairman Yuli Edelstein is expected to press Netanyahu and Defense Minister Israel Katz over the growing strain on reservists.

Coalition tensions rose last week after military Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Eyal Zamir ordered a plan to issue thousands of new draft notices to haredim, following the renewed call-up of reservists ahead of expanded operations in Gaza.

Rabbi Dov Lando, spiritual leader of the United Torah Judaism’s Degel HaTorah faction warned of “severe steps” if legislation exempting yeshiva students did not see “significant progress” by June 1.

But the legislation sought by the Haredi parties is expected to run afoul of the High Court of Justice’s demand for equal application of the law.

Military service is compulsory for all Israeli citizens. However, Israel’s first Prime Minister, David Ben-Gurion, and the country’s leading rabbis agreed to a status quo that deferred military service for Haredi men studying in yeshivot, or religious institutions.

At the time, no more than several hundred men were studying in yeshivot.

However, the Orthodox community has grown significantly since Israel’s founding. In January 2023, the Central Bureau of Statistics reported that Haredim are Israel’s fastest-growing community and projected it would constitute 16% of the population by the end of the decade.

According to the Israel Democracy Institute, the number of yeshiva students exceeded 138,000 in 2021.

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The Shas and United Torah Judaism parties have previously threatened to quit the government over the issue.

By Pesach Benson, TPS

Signaling a shift in the religious Shas Party, Interior Minister Moshe Abel called on Israel’s Orthodox community to show flexibility on military service while addressing the Haifa Law Conference at the University of Haifa on Thursday.

“Our ability to preserve history is through the same group that passes the word from generation to generation, from father to son, and it is of national importance, not just religious. In the same breath, it cannot allow anyone who wears a black kippa to decide not to enlist in the IDF. Especially after October 7, we need to win the war,” said Arbel.

Arbel was speaking one day after Defense Minister Yoav Gallant told lawmakers he would begin drafting yeshiva students next month.

“In the July-August recruitment, we will issue about 3,000 orders with the intention that the maximum will arrive. If 3,000 arrive, that is excellent, and if not, then we will study for the next recruitments. We are not looking to anger, we are looking for success in the process,” Gallant told the Knesset on Wednesday.

The Shas and United Torah Judaism parties have previously threatened to quit the government over the issue.

Said Arbel, “I want to say in a clear way that is not ambiguous: it is mandatory to comply with the provisions of the law and it is mandatory to comply with the ruling of the court.”

The High Court of Justice in June ordered the state to immediately begin conscripting yeshiva students.

In the end, said Arbel, the issue of drafting yeshiva students will be decided in a public debate that will require flexibility from both sides.

Military service is compulsory for all Israeli citizens. However, Israel’s first Prime Minister, David Ben-Gurion, and the country’s leading rabbis agreed to a status quo that deferred military service for Orthodox men studying in yeshivot, or religious institutions.

At the time, no more than several hundred men were studying in yeshivot.

However, the Orthodox community has grown significantly since Israel’s founding.

In January 2023, the Central Bureau of Statistics reported that Haredim are Israel’s fastest-growing community and projected it would constitute 16% of the population by the end of the decade.

According to the Israel Democracy Institute, the number of yeshiva students exceeded 138,000 in 2021.

That demographic growth has fueled passionate debates about “sharing the burden” of military service, the status of religious study in a Jewish society, and Haredi integration.

The war against Hamas, now in its eighth month, has stretched the army’s manpower needs, sharpening the national debate. The Press Service of Israel found that Haredi attitudes towards military service have softened since Hamas’s October 7 attacks.

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Israeli Supreme Court rules unanimously that government must enforce draft law on yeshiva students, after the court struck down draft law.

By World Israel News Staff

The Israeli Supreme Court has ordered the government of Israel to immediately act to draft ultra-Orthodox yeshiva students, in a unanimous ruling handed down Tuesday.

In its decision, the court rejected the government’s position, and instructed the state to cease funding of yeshiva students who, in the absence of a draft law exempting them or offering them annual service deferrals, must by law be drafted into the Israeli military.

“The state does not have the authority to instruct a broad exemption from service and in the absence of a law, funding cannot be made from state coffers for yeshiva students who were not legally exempt from service,” the court said.

The government must instead “act to enforce the Law for Military Service on yeshiva students.”

“It should be understood that even when exercising this authority for formulating a program for the gradual conscription of yeshiva students, the military authorities are obligated to act in accordance with the principles of administrative law.”

Shas party chairman MK Aryeh Deri blasted the ruling Tuesday afternoon, and accused the Supreme Court of targeting Torah study.

“The Jewish people survived persecutions, pogroms and wars only thanks to maintaining their uniqueness, the Torah and the commandments,” Deri said. “This is our secret weapon against all enemies, as promised by the Creator of the world.”

“There is no power in the world that can cut off the people of Israel from studying the Torah and anyone who has tried this in the past has failed miserably. No high-handed ruling will abolish the community of scholars in the land of Israel, which is the branch on which we all sit.”

The court’s ruling was issued in response to a petition against the government’s continuation of the religious status quo, maintaining annual deferrals for full-time yeshiva students, even after the Supreme Court struck down the draft law which permitted such deferrals.

The IDF has long maintained a mixed policy regarding the draft, imposing a near-universal draft on most of the Jewish population, while exempting Orthodox Jewish and Arab women, offering deferrals to men studying full-time in yeshiva, and largely exempting Arab men, with the exception of the Druze community.

In the 1980s and 1990s, however, the deferrals offered to yeshiva students drew growing criticism, leading to the establishment in 1999 of the Tal Committee to draft an alternative plan which would encourage ultra-Orthodox men to enter the workforce, allowing them the opportunity to leave yeshiva for a trial period without enlisting in the army.

That same year, the IDF formed the Netzah Yehuda Battalion, also known as Nahal Haredi, which catered to ultra-Orthodox soldiers.

In 2002, the Knesset passed the Tal Committee’s recommendations into law.

In 2012, however, the Supreme Court struck down the Tal Law, arguing that it discriminated against non-ultra-Orthodox citizens.

Two years later, the Israeli government passed a replacement law, aimed at encouraging ultra-Orthodox men to enlist in the army, with specific quotas set for ultra-Orthodox enlistment.

In 2015 the new government, which included the two ultra-Orthodox parties – Shas and United Torah Judaism – repealed the 2014 law, replacing it with one which largely restored the status quo ante.

The Supreme Court stepped in again in 2017 to strike down the new law, demanding the government pass new legislation to replace it.

Following Yisrael Beytenu’s departure from the government at the end of 2018, however, and the political instability which led to four consecutive Knesset elections from 2019 through 2022, coupled with the coronavirus pandemic, the Knesset was unable to pass a new draft bill to replace the version struck down in 2017.

Tuesday’s ruling was made after the government failed to pass a replacement law by the court’s June 2024 deadline, the last of multiple extensions issued by the Supreme Court.

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The law requires all citizens to report for military or national service the IDF does not conscript Muslim and Christian Arabs, but rather inducts those to volunteer.

By JNS

A petition submitted to Israel’s High Court demanding a universal draft for the country’s Arab citizens seeks to expose justices’ “hypocrisy” in the wake of a ruling annulling stipends for some haredi Jewish men who do not serve, Regional Cooperation Minister Dudi Amsalem said on Sunday.

On Thursday, the Supreme Court in Jerusalem, sitting as the High Court of Justice, ruled that ultra-Orthodox yeshivah students who did not obtain a deferral and who have failed to report to the Israel Defense Forces since July 1, 2023, will now be ineligible for financial stipends.

The court decided that an extended panel of nine justices would hear petitions demanding a universal draft for haredim starting in May.

Amsalem, who also serves as a lawmaker for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s ruling Likud Party, noted that “according to the law as it is today, every Arab has to go to the recruitment office, and the IDF decides whether to recruit him for the IDF or for national service.”

However, “since the establishment of the state until today, this doesn’t happen—yet the Supreme Court, during a war, rushed to attack the haredim and Torah scholars,” he said on Sunday.

“The students of Torah are a thorn in the side of the occupants of this building, which I call the building of the hypocrites,” Amsalem said in reference to the court.

“I want to see what those hypocrites will do now with the Arabs. I promise you—nothing. Because there is a lot of hatred for Judaism and the Jewish people’s heritage here,” he added.

Amsalem’s petition points out that while according to the Israeli Security Service Law, also known as the Israeli Defense Service Law, all citizens and permanent residents are equally obligated to report for military or national service, the IDF does not conscript Muslim and Christian Arabs, but rather inducts those to volunteer.

As of December 2022, Israel’s Central Bureau of Statistics estimated the country’s Muslim population in Israel to be 18.1% of the total. At the same time, the haredi public comprised 13.5% of the population.

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