From the Liveblog of
Sunday, April 27, 2025
Former PM Bennett: Netanyahu preventing victory over Hamas by preventing Haredi enlistment
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"
By “preventing the enlistment of the ultra-Orthodox,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government is keeping Israel from achieving victory over Hamas in Gaza, former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett declares.
In a lengthy tweet, Bennett says that Israel’s continued military “stumbling in Gaza stems directly from government policy that deprives the IDF of the main tool required for victory: fighters.”
Bennett slams “bombastic declarations from ministers [most of whom have never held a gun]” calling for the full conquest of Gaza while “these same ministers are literally depriving the IDF of the soldiers needed to carry out the same mission” — adding that “the IDF has been stretched beyond the limit” since October 7.
Claiming that the IDF “is short 20,000 soldiers,” Bennett argues that repeated emergency call-ups of reservists cannot substitute for a wider recruitment base.
The army has stated that it is facing a manpower shortage and currently needs some 12,000 new soldiers — 7,000 of whom would be combat troops.
The “solution,” Bennett asserts, is to call up one-fifth of eligible Haredim, a move which would “free up our reservists to breathe so that when we really need them for a large-scale operation, they would be fit.”
However, no real action has been taken, and “the orders being sent are a bluff,” Bennett continues, accusing Netanyahu and Finance Minister Smotrich of “putting politics above the good of the country.”
Currently, approximately 70,000 Haredi men between the ages of 18 and 24 are eligible for military service and have not enlisted. 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.
Addressing the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee last 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.
The Times of Israel Community.