After Shas ultimatum, Smotrich rejects ‘concessions’ on Haredi conscription bill
Recruiting currently exempt ultra-Orthodox men is ‘an existential national security necessity,’ minister declares; Haredi party members seek to downplay threat to tank coalition
Sam Sokol is the Times of Israel's political correspondent. He was previously a reporter for the Jerusalem Post, Jewish Telegraphic Agency and Haaretz. He is the author of "Putin’s Hybrid War and the Jews"
Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich ruled out making concessions on ultra-Orthodox conscription on Wednesday, a day after the Haredi Shas coalition party threatened to vote against the state budget and topple the government if a bill exempting most yeshiva students from military service isn’t passed into law within two months. Shas members sought to downplay the threat on Wednesday, however.
“I really hope that we will succeed in bringing a good conscription law that will completely change the situation and that will conscript the Haredim into the army, because they are needed. It is simply an existential national security necessity,” Smotrich declared from the Knesset rostrum.
The Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee is currently debating a bill dealing with the issue of ultra-Orthodox enlistment, with committee chairman Yuli Edelstein (Likud) having warned repeatedly that he “would only produce a real conscription law that will significantly increase the IDF’s conscription base.”
Both Shas and fellow ultra-Orthodox party United Torah Judaism have been heavily pressuring Netanyahu to pass a law that would see most of the community’s young men exempted, fearing that military service would secularize them. UTJ’s Agudat Yisrael faction has also threatened to vote against the budget over the draft issue.
“We are not willing to make concessions here,” Smotrich insisted on Wednesday, saying that Israel needs a “large, smart, aggressive [and] deadly army.” He invited “our Haredi partners and brothers” to take part in “the great mitzvah” of military service.
He called on the Haredim to at least pass the budget before dissolving the Knesset if an agreement cannot be reached: “You cannot leave a country at war without a budget.”
The 2025 state budget must be passed by the end of March or the government will automatically fall, triggering early elections.
Smotrich’s comments were met with derision by the ultra-Orthodox, with sources in the United Torah Judaism party telling the Ynet news site that it too would vote against the budget if it is brought to a vote without the prior passage of a conscription law.
“The government is on the verge of dissolution,” a UTJ source was quoted as saying.
Deputy Transportation Minister Uri Maklev, who represents UTJ’s Degel HaTorah faction, was more sanguine regarding the future of the coalition, however.
Addressing a conference in the southern city of Eilat on Wednesday afternoon, the ultra-Orthodox politician stated that the government is “stable” and will not fall because “there is no other alternative.”
Additionally, Shas member Haim Bitton tried to downplay the threat Wednesday from the Knesset rostrum.
“The atmosphere as if an ultimatum was given — that didn’t happen,” he claimed. “We won’t let you [the opposition] topple the government. We won’t bring down the government over the enlistment [issue].”
The ultra-Orthodox parties have threatened to bring down the government several times in the past few years, without following through even when their demands weren’t met or were met only partially.
Not a threat, an ultimatum
Speaking with ultra-Orthodox radio station Kol Berama on Tuesday, Shas chairman Aryeh Deri gave Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu two months to regulate the status of yeshiva students, warning that if the matter is “not regulated, we’ll go to elections.”
Deri’s threat was the latest to Netanyahu’s hard-right, mostly religious coalition after far-right former national security minister Itamar Ben Gvir resigned and pulled his Otzma Yehudit party out of the government over the approval of the ongoing hostage-ceasefire deal with Hamas. Smotrich himself has also threatened to resign if Israel does not return to fighting Hamas in Gaza after the 42-day first phase of the agreement.
Following Deri’s statement, Shas MK Erez Malul said in an interview with Kan radio on Tuesday evening that without his party, Netanyahu does not have the votes to pass a budget.
“United Torah Judaism will not vote in favor of the budget, Ben Gvir is in the opposition. How will this pass? This is not a threat, this is an ultimatum,” he said.
A contentious bill
The Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee this week restarted substantive discussions on the bill, which has been stuck in limbo for months.
Chairman Edelstein backs the “immediate” enlistment of 4,800 Haredim followed by the mobilization of all eligible Israelis, in accordance with the needs and capacity of the army, starting in 2026.
The army recently told the committee that, assuming it is provided with the necessary resources, it will be able to absorb Haredim “without any restrictions” starting next year.
However, Defense Minister Israel Katz has argued that this is not practical and has instead pushed for gradually increasing the number of Haredim drafted into the military until it reaches 50 percent of the annual eligible Haredi draft cohort by 2032.
Deputy Attorney General Gil Limon in turn has said that Katz’s plan would not satisfy the IDF’s manpower needs and is therefore incompatible with last summer’s High Court ruling that the government must draft previously exempt Haredi yeshiva students into the military.
Addressing the committee on Monday, Cabinet Secretary Yossi Fuchs insisted that the ultra-Orthodox draft must begin with those who do not learn full-time in yeshiva, warning that arresting yeshiva students for draft-dodging could provoke a significant backlash.
The military has already sent over 1,000 warrants that would prevent those who ignored multiple draft orders from leaving the country.
“If you arrest those who learn day and night in yeshiva and turn them into criminals, you’ll turn the entire Haredi community into the Jerusalem Faction,” Fuchs warned.
The Jerusalem Faction is an extremist ultra-Orthodox group numbering some 60,000 members that is considered among the most hardline opponents of efforts to extend enlistment requirements to yeshiva students and other Haredi men.
In contrast to Fuchs, IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi reportedly told lawmakers on Tuesday that “getting the Haredi leadership on board is important, but without effective sanctions it will be hard to make the difference,” adding that Haredi enlistment had become “a distinct security need” due to the war.
More friendly approaches over the years “led to very low enlistment rates,” he was quoted by Hebrew media outlets as saying during the closed session of Edelstein’s committee.
Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.
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