Bennett accuses PM of preventing victory over Hamas by not drafting ultra-Orthodox
Former premier says military ‘stretched past the limit’ since Oct. 7, demands government draft 20% of eligible Haredim to offset ‘stagnation’ of the military campaign in Gaza
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"
Former premier Naftali Bennett on Saturday charged that what he called Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s policy of “preventing the military enlistment of the ultra-Orthodox” was keeping Israel in a stalemate with Hamas in Gaza.
“The stagnation in Gaza stems directly from government policy that deprives the IDF of the main tool required for victory: fighters,” said the former prime minister, who is widely seen as gunning to replace Netanyahu, in a lengthy post on X.
Currently, approximately 70,000 Haredi men between the ages of 18 and 24 are eligible for military service but do not serve. Following a High Court decision in June, the IDF has sent out 18,915 initial draft orders to members of the Haredi community in several waves since July 2024 but, according to the IDF, only 232 of those who have received orders have enlisted, 57 of them in combat roles.
Meanwhile, reservists from around the country have been serving for hundreds of days, a burden that could be eased because even soldiers drafted after the war began are already serving in Gaza in combat roles, Bennett said. He cited police officer Sgt. Neta Yitzhak Kahane, who was killed fighting in northern Gaza on Friday.
“Hundreds of thousands of families are terrified” to learn their children were killed fighting, while “an entire community sleeps soundly,” said Bennett.
He slammed ministers, “most of whom have never held a gun,” who make “bombastic declarations… calling for the full conquest of Gaza,” even as they are “literally depriving the IDF of the soldiers needed to carry out that mission.”
Netanyahu’s hardline coalition includes ultra-Orthodox and far-right parties whose leaders either did not serve in the military or served for a truncated period in noncombat roles.
“The IDF has been stretched past its limit” since the Hamas onslaught of October 7, 2023, which sparked the war in Gaza, Bennett said. He also noted the increased troop presence in the West Bank amid large-scale counterterrorism operations there, and on the Lebanese and Syrian fronts amid the war with Hezbollah and the ouster of Syrian president Bashar al-Assad.
“Never have we needed so many soldiers,” wrote Bennett. “Right now, the IDF is lacking 20,000 troops.” The military has said it is facing a manpower shortage and needs some 12,000 new soldiers, 7,000 of whom would be combat troops.
Bennett said the repeated emergency call-ups of reservists — “students, business owners, engineers, CEOs and so on,” for hundreds of days cannot replace a “real solution” to the military’s manpower crunch.
The “real solution” was to call up one-fifth of eligible Haredim and “free up our reservists to breathe so that when we really need them for a large-scale operation, they would be fit,” Bennett said.
However, the former premier said, no real action has been taken, and “the orders being sent are a bluff.” He accused Netanyahu and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich of “putting politics above the good of the country.”
The stability of the ruling coalition depends on the support of the two Haredi parties, which together have 18 seats in the 120-seat Knesset and staunchly opposed military service for their community.
Addressing the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee on Wednesday, Lt. Col. Avigdor Dickstein, head of the Haredi branch of the IDF’s Personnel Directorate, indicated that despite the army aiming to recruit 4,800 Haredi men during the 2024-2025 draft cycle, only 1,721 have enlisted thus far.
“We set ourselves a target of 4,800 and we will not reach that. There is an upward trend here, but it is not sufficient and does not correspond to the very large operational need,” he said.
Despite the lack of troops, the government plans on passing a controversial bill on draft exemptions for Haredi men that has been derided by critics as an “evasion law.”
Netanyahu’s ultra-Orthodox coalition partners have been pushing for the passage of legislation regulating military exemptions for yeshiva students and other members of the Haredi community, after the High Court ruled in June last year that the dispensations, in place for decades, were illegal since they were not based in law.
Surveys over the past year have shown Bennett to be Netanyahu’s top rival for the premiership in the next election, set to be held in late 2026. The former prime minister recently registered a new political party called “Bennett 2026.”
Bennett served briefly as premier in 2021-2022. A former tech entrepreneur, he began his political career as an aide to Netanyahu.
He initially positioned himself to Netanyahu’s right, but was shunned by much of the right wing after he formed a government that included left-wing and Arab parties after he unseated Netanyahu.
Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.
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