Cabinet committee set for key vote that could decide early elections

It’s the last week of the Knesset’s winter session, and maybe the last week of the 20th Knesset. By this evening, coalition lawmakers should know whether any compromise can be reached between the ultra-Orthodox lawmakers demanding the advance of a bill to exempt their youth from the military draft — even from registering for it, since their youth are already granted automatic exemptions from actually serving — and the Yisrael Beytenu party that says granting the exemption in formal law is discriminatory and could hurt the nation’s security.

At 6 p.m., the Ministerial Committee for Legislation, a committee of cabinet members that grants government backing for bills, is set to vote on whether it will support the ultra-Orthodox-sponsored bill. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is said to be speaking to Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman, head of Yisrael Beytenu, to convince him to at least have his party’s lawmakers, including Absorption Minister Sofa Landver, who sits on the ministerial committee, absent themselves from the vote if they won’t vote for it.

In other words, at 6 p.m. we should know more about whether the country is going to elections.