Netanyahu said seeking to dissuade Haredi parties from backing September elections

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is urging the ultra-Orthodox parties in his coalition not to force early September elections, warning in private talks that such a timeline would “endanger” the right-wing bloc’s chances of winning, Channel 12 reports.

According to the report, Netanyahu has told Haredi lawmakers that if elections are triggered now – with campaigning effectively beginning within two weeks – he would be unable to fully focus on the race due to the ongoing security situation, particularly as US President Donald Trump weighs a resumption of fighting with Iran amid the lack of a decisive victory on that front.

Shas is reportedly pushing for elections on September 15, while United Torah Judaism prefers September 1 ahead of a preliminary Knesset vote on dissolving parliament scheduled for Wednesday.

On Tuesday morning, the ultra-Orthodox Degel HaTorah party, one of two factions within UTJ, said it would seek to dissolve the Knesset and trigger early elections because of the coalition’s failure to pass a law enshrining the decades-old exemption of Haredi yeshiva students from military service. That position was later backed up by UTJ’s Agudat Yisrael faction.