Senior figures in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party have told members of the coalition’s ultra-Orthodox factions they will have to compromise on a bill exempting yeshiva students from military service, according to the Ynet news site.
Citing Likud sources, the report says party members stressed to their Haredi interlocutors that the measure they are demanding lacks sufficient coalition support to clear the Knesset. They also reportedly said if there is no compromise, there will be no law.
“Goldknopf needs to get in touch with the Israeli reality,” an unnamed Likud official is quoted as saying, referring to the head of the United Torah Judaism party.
The official also notes Likud’s criticism of reservists who have stopped showing up for volunteer duty to protest the government’s judicial overhaul.
“We are coming out against insubordination because it is dangerous for the country’s security. Likud lending a hand to mass evasion [from conscription]? It won’t happen,” the official adds.
The comments come as coalition leaders meet to discuss the IDF legislation in light of their internal divisions.
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