From Haredi leader warns government will fall if conscription bill not passed before budget
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"
United Torah Judaism chairman Yitzchak Goldknopf warns that if an ultra-Orthodox conscription law is not passed before the state budget, it will never be passed, and declares that the controversial legislation must be given priority or the government will fall.
“We have two options before us: either they put off the conscription bill and we go to summer elections, or they insist on the conscription bill before the budget and the government completes its term,” Goldknopf insists.
The 2025 state budget must be passed by the end of March or the government will automatically fall, triggering early elections.
According to a report in the Hamodia daily, which is affiliated with Goldknopf’s Gur Hasidic movement, the housing minister complained during a UTJ faction meeting in the Knesset that a bill enshrining yeshiva students’ military exemptions should have been passed a long time ago, but Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government has repeatedly given excuses and postponed its advancement.
While cautioning that the party will not make any final decision before obtaining guidance from its rabbinic leadership, Goldknopf declares that the enlistment bill should be prioritized as a condition of the government’s continuation and that it should “be made clear to the general public” that unless it is passed before the budget, the enlistment bill “will never be enacted.”
According to Hebrew press reports, at the weekly cabinet meeting earlier this week, Netanyahu indicated that the budget would be passed first. In response, Goldknopf was said to have asked why his party remained in the government.
The Times of Israel Community.