‘I told you so’: Ousted defense committee chair responds to Haredi push to dissolve Knesset

MK Yuli Edelstein, the ousted former chair of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, responds to Degel HaTorah’s announcement that it will push to dissolve the Knesset with a pointed “I told you so” on X, apparently aimed at his own Likud party.

“To my great regret, I am forced to say today [that] I told you so,” writes Edelstein, who was removed as committee chair last August over his push to pass legislation to conscript Haredi men into the IDF. He notes that at the time, he warned that replacing him  would “change nothing” and “would only bury the conscription law once and for all.”

“And that is exactly what happened,” Edelstein writes.

“Since the outbreak of the war, I have fought for a real conscription law, but the Haredi leadership never wanted enlistment, even at the cost of toppling the right-wing government,” he continues. “Today, the Israeli public understands who spoke the truth and who played politics on the backs of the reservists and the serving public. I am proud that I prevented an evasion law and I will continue to fight for a real and fair conscription law in the State of Israel.”

Edelstein was ousted from his post amid growing pressure on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu from within Likud after the two Haredi parties, Shas and United Torah Judaism, bolted the government, blaming the lawmaker for his attempts to advance a version of the conscription bill that would guarantee significant draft quotas and sanctions for evaders.

His successor, Likud MK Boaz Bismuth, instead introduced a bill that would have provided a blanket exemption from service to almost all yeshiva students. The draft legislation was panned by critics as ineffective and full of loopholes.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told Haredi MKs last week that the bill did not have enough parliamentary support to pass before the elections.