From the Liveblog of
Monday, November 11, 2024
Netanyahu to discuss Haredi draft bill with Katz, Edelstein this evening — report
Sam Sokol is the Times of Israel's political correspondent. 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"
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is slated to discuss the ultra-Orthodox enlistment bill with newly appointed Defense Minister Israel Katz and Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee chairman Yuli Edelstein this evening at 7 p.m., Channel 13 reports.
A bill seeking to regulate ultra-Orthodox enlistment is currently stuck in Edelstein’s committee, where he said it will only pass if lawmakers can reach a “broad consensus” on the matter.
This will be the first meeting on the issue since former defense minister Yoav Gallant was fired last week. Gallant has said that his ouster was motivated, in part, by his insistence on the need to draft Haredi men to the IDF.
Following Gallant’s termination, Edelstein stated that, regardless of who heads the Defense Ministry, he would not support “any law that attempts to circumvent our ceaseless efforts to expand the conscription base in the State of Israel.”
“Personally, I don’t change my positions according to the person who sits in the Prime Minister’s Office, the person who sits in the Defense Minister’s Bureau or the person who fills any other post,” Edelstein said at the time. “If and when the new defense minister — whom we all wish success in the war effort, as well as the draft effort — will be ready to sit down and talk, I have not changed my position that the [draft] bill should be real.”
Shortly thereafter, coalition whip Ofir Katz took disciplinary action against Edelstein and fellow Likud MK Dan Illouz, who also opposes exemptions for Haredim. Both men were prohibited from submitting private bills for a period of time. Illouz was also removed from his position on two committees, including Edelstein’s.
