Benjamin Netanyahu avoided the collapse of his governing coalition last night after striking a last-minute deal with the Charedi parties over the conscription of young Orthodox men into the IDF.
The prime minister had faced overthrow when Shas and United Torah Judaism (UTJ) backed a motion to dissolve the Knesset, forcing fresh elections while he sits behind former premier Naftali Bennett in some polls.
The row centered over the enlistment of Charedi men, particularly those studying in yeshivot, under a new draft bill, currently in committee stage, regulating their participation in the army after the Supreme Court struck down their long-running exemption last year.
Both Shas and UTJ, which hold a collective 18 of the coalition’s 67 seats, had announced that they would vote for the dissolution law – setting up a crunch vote late last night.
However, an eleventh-hour compromise saw Shas and Degel HaTorah (one of the two factions that constitutes UTJ) pull their support after extracting concessions from Yuli Edelstein, a member of Netanyahu’s Likud party and chair of the Foreign Affairs and Defence Committee.
Edelstein was previously considered the main stumbling block to a deal as he was understood to be set against carving out an exemption for the Charedim.
According to Channel 12, though, the new framework will see the contentious sanctions against strictly Orthodox institutions that dodge the draft partially delayed.
Most of the sanctions for those who refuse a draft order – which include the suspension of driver’s licences, travel bans and cancellation of academic subsidies – will be enforceable as soon as the law comes onto the books.
But the suspension of discounts for Charedi men at religious dormitories and on public transport will be delayed by at least six months and only imposed if registration targets are not met.
There will then be a further two check-ups – at one year and two years into the recruitment cycle – with the suspension of National Insurance rebates allowed if targets are not met by the former and the removal of subsidies for second-hand apartments and Charedi daycare centers at risk if enlistment remains below par by the latter.
These targets are for 4,800 Charedi men to enlist within the first year and a further 5,700 in the second, though the benchmark will be considered met if 95 per cent of each of these numbers is achieved.
The changes were enough to secure the support of Shas and Degel HaTorah, leading to the dissolution bill being voted down by a margin of 61 to 53 (it would have required the support of at least 61 MKs).
Yet it has not been without criticism, both from the opposition and within the Charedi community.
Yitzhak Goldknopf, chair of UTJ and head of its smaller faction Agudat Yisrael, resigned from the coalition in protest after supporting to dissolution bill.
He claimed that the compromise did not meet the standards he was reportedly promised by Netanyahu and, consequently, he “ can no longer take part as a member of this government”.
And Democrats chair Yair Golan, a former deputy chief of staff in the IDF, called the reported deal “disgraceful”, saying: “There is no ideology here. There is no love for the country here. There is no concern for security here. Only cynicism. Only selfish survival.”
Elsewhere, while the framework has apparently ended the coalition’s internal crisis, it may have sparked a fresh row with reservists, with the Reservists’ Wives Forum calling it a “moral injustice”.
Shvut Raanan, an attorney and representative of the forum, told Kan: “The outline is not a draft plan; it is an evasion plan. It is a plan for yeshiva recruitment.
"The belief that it is possible to continue fighting with a few worn-out people is not correct.”
