A compromise celebrated too early: 7 things to know for March 12

1. The compromise deal which was reportedly reached late Sunday between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the ultra-Orthodox parties on drafting members of the Haredi community into the army still doesn’t convince the Hebrew-language media outlets that Israel is not headed toward early elections. All eyes are on Yisrael Beytenu head Avigdor Liberman, who despite the deal seems to still be holding his ground regarding his ongoing opposition to the conscription bill.

• Haaretz reports that Knesset members from Yisrael Beytenu made it clear they would vote against the compromise agreement on the draft law. “I think that this law should come from a professional body, namely, the Defense Ministry,” the party’s MK Robert Ilatov said. “You cannot place a bomb on the table [and tell us] either you vote for the law or not. We do not come to Litzman or the finance minister and tell them we want you to vote on the budget according to our will.”
• Ilatov’s comments echo Liberman’s sentiments on the matter, as the Yisrael Beytenu leader has insisted he will only support a bill on Haredi draft exemptions if it is written up by his ministry, which he says is the sole authority over the issue.

2. Netanyahu has agreed to push the conscription bill through the Ministerial Committee for Legislation and bring it to a preliminary plenum vote at the request of the ultra-Orthodox parties. In such a case, the 2019 state budget would then be approved, as Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon has been demanding, and the bill would then be shelved until the Knesset’s summer session.

• The ultra-Orthodox coalition parties threatened last week to vote down the 2019 state budget unless legislation is approved this week exempting members of their communities from the military draft. The threat prompted a coalition crisis after Kahlon threatened to quit his post and the coalition if the budget is not passed this week.
• The bill calls for a target of 3,800 ultra-Orthodox recruits to the IDF and National Service each year, and a gradual increase in these numbers in the future. However, the law will not include sanctions against draft dodgers or incentives for those who do sign up for the army. It will, though, include a clause stating that every five years the government will examine the general recruitment targets among Haredi recruits, Yedioth Aharonth reports.

3. Senior officials in the Justice Ministry have indicated that the compromise proposal does not meet the rules and conditions presented by the High Court of Justice regarding the burden of equal treatment, and Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit has not yet submitted his final position on the matter.

• Mandelblit is expected by “some in the political system” to oppose the deal, Israel Radio reported Monday, since the conscription law meant to be promoted according to the compromise isn’t the same as the one coordinated with him by Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked.
• Yesh Atid chairman and senior opposition member Yair Lapid labeled the compromise bill as “an insult to the IDF and an insult to the recruits,” tweeting that based on the deal, “the ultra-Orthodox will conscript to the army only if they feel like it.”

4. If the bill were to be struck down by Mandelblit, the prospect of early elections would be put back on the table.

• Netanyahu has effectively told his coalition partners that he is willing to go to elections, and would only work to prevent the government’s collapse if he received upfront assurances that the other parties in the government did not plan to topple it down the road.
• Israel Hayom reports that Jewish Home leader Naftali Bennett scolded his fellow members of the coalition and stated that the public will “not forgive [the government] for calling early elections.” Bennett, the education minister, said he would rethink support for the prime minister if early elections were called over Netanyahu’s legal woes.

5. The prospect of Netanyahu calling for early elections is intermingled with the many ongoing investigations against him. The prime minister has maintained that the probes against him are politically motivated and the result of a continued failure to remove him from office via elections. If elections were to be held, and Netanyahu were to emerge victorious, many would see the results as a vote of confidence by the Israeli public in the prime minister, and as an indication that his claims have some merit to them.

• In face of such a scenario, State Prosecutor Shai Nitzan launched a fierce defense of the justice system, warning Netanyahu that victory at the ballot box would not clear his name of serious corruption allegations. Still, “the question of whether the public is convinced that a certain person is innocent of any crime or accusation certainly has importance in the public sphere,” Nitzan told a joint Israel Democracy Institute and Makor Rishon conference in celebrating “70 Years of Israel’s democracy, according to Israel Hayom.

6. Adding to the feeling that many Israeli institutions are tainted with corruption, Haaretz reports that a Jerusalem Municipality official was arrested on suspicion of receiving bribes.

• According to the daily, the official is suspected of accepting bribes from businessmen and entrepreneurs in Jerusalem in return for advancing their business.
• Three other suspects were arrested and one suspect was detained for questioning, including a well-known businessman whose name remains unpublished, his close associate, and a banquet hall owner.

7. Back to the army, Israel Hayom brings forth yet another case of a clash of ideologies within the IDF, reporting that religious Zionist rabbi Zvi Kostiner was dismissed from reserve service following statements against conscripting women soldiers.

• Kostiner, the head of the Hesder yeshiva in Mitzpe Ramon, has over the past months repeatedly stated that he believes the army’s effort to allow women to hold more positions within the IDF is motivated by a “culture war” aimed at “destroying the family unit.”
• The rabbi has also said that a “Jewish army is one without women.”