From the Liveblog of
Tuesday, March 18, 2025
Bennett says government is enabling ‘massive’ ultra-Orthodox draft evasion
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 prime minister Naftali Bennett accuses Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of enabling wide-scale draft evasion by the ultra-Orthodox, calling it a “terrible injustice.”
“One the one hand, the government sends soldiers to fight in the battle and on the other it promotes a budget that encourages massive evasion to the tune of billions of shekels, which polarizes the people of Israel. I call on the government to stop this immediately,” Bennett tells a conference at the University of Haifa.
“The IDF is fighting for the entire people of Israel, and therefore everyone must show up. There is zero tolerance for any hint of refusal or failure to stand up for the campaign,” he says,
In response, Netanyahu’s Likud party releases a statement lashing out at Bennett over the short-lived coalition he led in 2021-2022.
“Bennett has done nothing to help the recruitment of the ultra-Orthodox while the current government is enacting a historic change that will lead to real recruitment of ultra-Orthodox into the IDF. Bennett will continue to tweet from his mansion in Ra’anana, and we will continue to lead the country in this challenging time.”
