From the Liveblog of
Wednesday, June 4, 2025
Likud minister Karhi asserts Haredi draft law can be passed, is said to offer to replace Edelstein as committtee head
Add ToI as a Preferred Source on GoogleSam 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"
The government will not fall but will instead pass legislation regulating ultra-Orthodox conscription, contends Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi.
“This Knesset is not going anywhere – not now, and not because of cynical political pressures,” the Likud politician tweets, vowing that nobody “will drag the State of Israel into unnecessary elections” during “a war for the future of the state.”
“This historic and important conscription law will be legislated – not with slogans or political maneuvers, but with responsibility and respect for the world of Torah and for Israel’s security,” he writes.
According to the Israel Hayom daily, Karhi has proposed that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu allow him to resign from his ministerial position and replace Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee chairman Yuli Edelstein, who has pledged that any law coming out of his committee would levy sanctions on draft dodgers, a position rejected by the Haredim.
“I hope that someone will be found who will be able to solve the problem,” and if Edelstein cannot, then “we need to find someone who will succeed,” Karhi is quoted as saying by the right-wing news outlet.
This morning, the spiritual leaders of Degel Hatorah, one of the two factions that make up the ultra-Orthodox United Torah Judaism coalition party, instructed its MKs to introduce a bill to dissolve the Knesset due to the coalition’s failure to pass a bill exempting yeshiva students from conscription — a longstanding UTJ goal.
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