From the Liveblog of
Monday, July 15, 2024
Liberman says government effort to push draft exemptions for ultra-Orthodox harms national security
Sam Sokol is the Times of Israel's political correspondent. 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"
Slamming the enlistment law currently being debated in the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, Yisrael Beytenu chairman Avigdor Liberman complains that the government is pushing hard to exempt yeshiva students even as it is lengthening active duty soldiers’ terms of service and calling up reservists for repeated stints in the army.
“This harms security and the unity of the nation,” he tells reporters ahead of his party’s weekly faction meeting in the Knesset.
Liberman also slams United Torah Judaism chairman Yitzhak Goldknopf for his statement that he would be willing to support legislation to cancel the upcoming Knesset recess in order to pass the enlistment bill.
“That says everything,” Liberman says.
