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Wednesday, May 20, 2026
Likud’s Edelstein: Haredi draft exemption bill discussions could ‘bury right-wing rule in Israel’
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"
Likud MK Yuli Edelstein slams the coalition’s controversial ultra-Orthodox draft exemption bill as a danger to the future of the political right in Israel during a heated debate in the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee.
Edelstein chaired the panel until he was removed last summer over his refusal to advance a conscription bill based on a compromise reached with the Haredi parties.
“Arguments have been made here that this is a discussion for the government and a discussion intended to preserve the coalition. I see things exactly the opposite. I think this is a discussion that could bury right-wing rule in the State of Israel,” Edelstein declares.
Edelstein also harshly criticizes Cabinet Secretary Yossi Fuchs, who appeared to claim that Israel Defense Forces Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir supports the legislation.
Addressing the committee, Fuchs states that Zamir, “in classified letters sent to the cabinet and the government” emphasized that both extending the terms of service of IDF recruits and passing “a conscription law that regulates the situation” are necessary.
Zamir “explicitly said, ‘I want the three laws to pass,'” Fuchs says, referring to the service extension, Haredi draft bill and a law regulating reserve service.
The government’s law is necessary because “you cannot change the lifestyle of the Haredi public by force,” Fuchs argues. “When it comes to a confrontation with 80,000–90,000 young Haredi men, what do you want to do? Set up detention facilities, or enlist soldiers into the IDF?”
Hitting back, Edelstein calls Fuch’s statement “embarrassing,” countering that “in an official statement, the chief of staff said he did not mean this specific law.”
Speaking with The Times of Israel following the hearing, committee member MK Evgeny Sova of the opposition party Yisrael Beytenu accuses Fuchs of lying.
“The chief of staff sat in the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee a week and a half ago and said ‘I am crying out, I don’t have soldiers.’ That’s all. After something like that, coming and saying that the chief of staff supports the bill is simply just an absolute lie,” Sova says.
The Times of Israel Community.