Netanyahu said weighing ousting Edelstein amid Haredi threats to topple the government

As spiritual leaders of the Haredi coalition parties are set to meet tomorrow to discuss the threat to bolt the coalition and topple the government, the Kan public broadcaster reports that one of the options Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is considering to quell the rebellion is to remove Likud MK Yuli Edelstein from his post as head of the Knesset’s powerful Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee.

That panel has been in charge of putting together legislation exempting most ultra-Orthodox men while drafting others to the military, though the gaps between Edelstein’s stance and that of the Haredi parties have proven insurmountable. The Haredi parties have been demanding that such a law be passed since the current government’s inception, and they have grown angry at Netanyahu for dragging the matter on for years.

Netanyahu’s office denies the Kan report.