From the Liveblog of
Wednesday, July 23, 2025
Likud MK Illouz denounces party’s efforts to oust Edelstein as defense panel chair
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"
MK Dan Illouz slams his party’s decision to hold a vote to replace Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee chairman Yuli Edelstein, which he says will split Likud without advancing the passage of legislation conscripting the ultra-Orthodox.
Today’s faction vote on Edelstein’s replacement “appears to the public as yet another attempt to appease the ultra-Orthodox partners” and serves as “not only a blow to the national and liberal values of Likud [but] a blow to Likud itself,” Illouz tweets.
A former member of Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, Illouz was removed by Likud faction chairman Ofir Katz last year over his public opposition to coalition-backed legislation aimed at guaranteeing that state-funded daycare subsidies would continue for the children of ultra-Orthodox men who are obligated to perform military service, but have not done so.
“The servicemen are the heart and soul of the national camp. If we stop representing them — they might stop voting for us… Those who think that giving in to the demands of coalition partners will prolong our rule are, in practice, endangering the rule of the right in the long term,” Illouz asserts.
“An empty conscription law will not pass … and that will not change — no matter who heads the committee,” he adds.
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