Karhi he says efforts being made to return Haredi politicians to government

Reading out the names of Haredi cabinet members who recently resigned from the government over its failure to pass a law exempting yeshiva students from military service, Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi states that action is already being taken to ensure their return.

Addressing lawmakers in the Knesset, Karhi states that “we are acting, already today in our faction meeting, to ensure that these resignations are canceled and our coalition partners return to their roles as soon as possible.”

This afternoon, Likud lawmakers are slated to vote on a replacement for Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee chairman Yuli Edelstein over his refusal to advance a conscription bill based on a compromise reached with the Haredi parties last month.

According to Karhi, the coalition is “fighting here for a historic conscription law that will conscript about 17,000 young Haredi men within three years” while also “recognizing the value of those whose Torah is their profession” — a reference to those who have traditionally been exempt from military service due to their status as full-time yeshiva students.

Karhi alleges that anybody who opposes such a law “harms the security of the state” and declares that “finally, we are bringing something you never dreamed of, neither in Gantz’s exemption law nor in Lapid’s exemption law.”