In leaked recordings, Netanyahu says he dismissed top defense officials to push through Haredi draft exemption bill

In leaked recordings aired by Channel 13, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu tells a senior rabbi that his effective removal of former IDF chief of staff Herzi Halevi and former defense minister Yoav Gallant was intended to eliminate them as “obstacles” to advancing legislation demanded by the Haredi factions in his coalition that would exempt ultra-Orthodox men from military service.

Channel 13 publishes the recordings after the spiritual leader of Degel Hatorah, one of the two factions that make up the ultra-Orthodox United Torah Judaism party, instructed their MKs to introduce a bill to dissolve the Knesset due to the coalition’s failure to pass a law exempting yeshiva students from conscription.

It says the conversation took place in March, just ahead of the vote on the 2025 state budget.

“We need the time to pass the law in a proper way that cannot be challenged,” Netanyahu is heard telling Rabbi Moshe Hillel Hirsch, a member of the Council of Torah Sages of Degel HaTorah and a leader of the Lithuanian-Haredi community, in the English-language call.

“The reason we weren’t able to do it is because we had enormous obstacles that we removed. You know, when the defense minister is against you and the chief of staff is against you, you cannot move. Now we can move,” he says.

He tells Hirsch that with Halevi gone, the IDF is now working to improve its ability to integrate Haredi soldiers.

“In fact, it’s because we changed the chief of staff, because we changed the defense minister who was blocking us all this long period, we are now able to move more confidently and more professionally,” the premier says.

“We can save the Torah world,” declares Netanyahu, adopting a term used by Haredim to refer to religious Jewish communities. “We can finish this matter once and for all. And get this heavy load that they put on us and on the Torah world, get rid of this once and for all.”

He tells Hirsch that doing this would be possible “with your help.”

The premier elaborates on what he says are the legislative challenges of passing the bill, saying, “To put a deadline that is too quick will impair the process. I think Rosh Hashanah is a sufficient time,” referring to the Jewish holiday, which this year falls in September.

The extended deadline is necessary, says Netanyahu, as the legislative process in the Knesset moves slowly, and the opposition will try to prevent the law from passing.

He says he thinks they need another eight weeks until the legislation is ready, but that there may be “obstacles.”

“So I don’t want to be caught in a deadline that I promised you, and I won’t be able to keep. But if there’s an agreed-upon time that is feasible and is beyond their ability to block, then we’ll get it done and that’s it,” he says.

The premier also takes the opportunity to attack those on the political left, accusing them of “trying to bring down the government to hurt the Torah world.”

These people are against the Torah world,” he says of his left-wing and centrist opponents. “This is the biggest threat to the Torah world. If we don’t pass a law, they will continue to try and bring it down.”

He adds that he needs the rabbi’s help in order to pass the conscription law, saying, “If we work together, we can finish this thing — and once and for all.”