Lapid: PM working with Haredi parties so that ultra-Orthodox can continue dodging draft

By Sam Sokol 9 June 2025, 4:09 pm

1 Edit

Sam 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"

Opposition Leader Yair Lapid slams Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu working with the ultra-Orthodox parties to weaken sanctions on draft dodgers included in the government’s Haredi enlistment bill, arguing that by doing so the government is enabling wartime evasion.

“Over the past two days, the Prime Minister’s Office, together with the Haredim, have been focusing their efforts on only one thing: postponing the sanctions in the evasion law. Making sure they are postponed for at least six months,” Lapid tells reporters ahead of his Yesh Atid party’s weekly faction meeting in the Knesset.

The only explanation for such behavior is that Netanyahu and the Haredi parties want to enable evasion of military service, he says.

“If the government agrees to postpone the sanctions even for one day, then it has decided to cooperate with the fraudsters, and this law is a fraud,” he continues.

“A law without immediate sanctions is not a law. It’s another lie by Netanyahu, who is selling out our fighters, our security, just to keep his crumbling coalition alive for a few more weeks. Yuli Edelstein, the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, the Israeli Knesset, cannot agree to this.”

Asked about Netanyahu’s decision to arm a criminal gang in the Gaza Strip as part of an effort to strengthen opposition to Hamas in the enclave, Lapid responds, “I don’t mind that the militias in Gaza have weapons and will kill each other,” wishing success to “both sides.”