From the Liveblog of
Thursday, June 5, 2025
After talks with ultra-Orthodox, Gantz says he won’t back Haredi draft exemptions
Add ToI as a Preferred Source on GoogleSam Sokol is a former political correspondent at The Times of Israel. 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"
Speaking at the Galilee Panhandle Conference in northern Israel, National Unity chairman Benny Gantz declares that after elections Israel must advance “a broad service outline in which all parts of society serve,” putting the kibosh on support for ultra-Orthodox draft deferments sought by Haredi parties.
Gantz says he has told Haredi politicians this directly “and they know my position.”
כך התקבל הערב בני גנץ בישיבת ׳אור החיים׳ של חבר ההנהגה הרוחנית של ש״ס pic.twitter.com/lHFGaYM6b8
— ישי כהן (@ishaycoen) June 4, 2025
On Tuesday, Gantz met with Motti Babchik, a senior adviser to Housing Minister Yitzhak Goldknopf, the head of the ultra-Orthodox United Torah Judaism party, and on Wednesday evening he was filmed visiting a yeshiva linked to one of the Shas party’s rabbinical leaders.
Asked at the conference whether he was coordinating with Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee chairman Yuli Edelstein (Likud), whose insistence on legislating sanctions against Haredi draft dodgers has ignited ultra-Orthodox threats to topple the government, Gantz demurs.
“I won’t open this up here. I speak with everybody, including Yuli, and he understands that change must happen and I very much hope that he will not break down even in the face of the threats that will probably intensify,” he says.
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