Bismuth hits back at IDF chief: Timing of letter slamming Haredi draft freeze no ‘coincidence’

Boaz Bismuth, the Likud lawmaker who chairs the Knesset’s Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, responds to a letter by IDF Chief Eyal Zamir slamming a proposed seven-month freeze on IDF enlistment.

Bismuth says the IDF was given ample opportunity to comment on the proposal, and questions Zamir’s decision to send the letter now, shortly before the freeze is due to be approved by the full Knesset today.

“It’s hard to see this timing as a coincidence,” Bismuth writes.

In his letter, Zamir called the freeze “clearly and unequivocally inconsistent with the IDF’s needs,” and said it “undermines the legitimacy of and trust among those who serve.”

Bismuth responds in his letter that Zamir sent his missive last night, only after the measure had been approved by Bismuth’s committee. Bismuth says that the IDF had three weeks to review the draft legislation, and that its representatives participated in the Knesset committee discussions over it.

Bismuth adds that the legislation was composed in coordination with the Defense Ministry and that it amended it according to the ministry’s wishes.

Bismuth says that during the discussions over the legislation, “the IDF’s representatives did not show one example to the committee of an arrest of a Torah scholar leading to enlistment in practice,” Bismuth writes, according to Hebrew media reports.

Bismuth has championed legislation to enshrine blanket exemptions from military service for yeshiva students. The IDF has warned repeatedly that it faces an urgent manpower shortage.