Netanyahu tells Bismuth to withhold Haredi draft bill, likely delaying key Knesset panel debate — report

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu requested Likud MK Boaz Bismuth to delay submitting the bill to regulate the military conscription and exemptions for the ultra-Orthodox community to his Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, the Kan public broadcaster reports.

According to the report, the debate on the bill, scheduled for Monday, will likely be postponed, as a bill must be presented to the panel 48 hours before a discussion.

Opposition Yisrael Beytenu party chair Avigdor Lieberman responds to the report, accusing the government of wasting time while soldiers are fighting and their families worry about them.

“This spitting in all our faces will end on the first day of the government I will form,” he says, vowing to “flip the equation” and put soldiers and ex-soldiers first.