Senior sources in the United Torah Judaism bloc described yesterday's meeting with Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee Chairman Yuli Edelstein regarding the conscription law as a "disastrous failure," adding that the bloc's chairman, MK Moshe Gafni, received instructions from the spiritual leader of the Degel HaTorah party, Rabbi Dov Landau, to support the law to dissolve the Knesset.
Israeli media reported that following the failure to reach an agreement with Edelstein last night regarding the exemption of ultra-Orthodox citizens from military service, the religious leadership of United Torah Judaism instructed Gafni to withdraw from the coalition and dissolve the government.
The United Torah Judaism bloc consists of the two Haredi parties, Degel HaTorah and Agudat Yisrael. The newspaper Yeded Ne'eman, the mouthpiece of Degel HaTorah, reported today that "these days are testing Prime Minister Netanyahu's leadership and whether he will fulfill his pledges and promises regarding the settlement of the status of Torah students," referring to students at Haredi Torah seminaries.
Sources close to the spiritual leader of the Degel HaTorah party, Rabbi Moshe Hillel Hirsch, said that after Hirsch learned of the results of his meeting with Edelstein, which revealed no progress on the conscription issue, he is expected to order Hirsch to withdraw from the coalition in the near future.
Meanwhile, the opposition parties Yesh Atid, Yisrael Beiteinu, and Labor announced that they will submit a bill to dissolve the Knesset next Wednesday.
The main disagreement concerns the penalties that will be imposed on Haredim who refuse to serve, and the extent of these penalties. According to the draft law being drafted by the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, such penalties would be personal to those who refuse to serve, as well as penalties for yeshivot (Torah institutes) that fail to meet the required number of students to be drafted.
The Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee is demanding strict sanctions that are fully and immediately implemented, while the Haredim are demanding that the law stipulate that the sanctions be gradual. The prevailing belief within the committee is that it will be impossible to explain to the public why the yeshivot continue to be funded from the state treasury, and that gradual sanctions will not be approved by the Supreme Court, following petitions filed against a law that includes such sanctions.
شارك برأيك
United Torah Judaism intends to support a law to dissolve the Knesset over the refusal to draft ultra-Orthodox men.