Netanyahu to meet key political players in bid to advance Haredi conscription bill

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is slated to hold an emergency meeting this evening with Shas chairman Aryeh Deri, Defense Minister Israel Katz and Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee chairman Yuli Edelstein in an attempt to arrive at a compromise regarding a long-delayed bill regulating Haredi military enlistment.

Spokespeople for two of the participants confirmed the meeting, which comes after IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir instructed the Personnel Directorate on Tuesday to immediately provide a plan to drastically increase the number of draft orders sent to members of the ultra-Orthodox community.

Ultra-Orthodox parties in the coalition were reportedly furious at the move, which was aimed at providing the army with up to 80,000 potential conscripts, according to Hebrew media reports.

Earlier this week, both Shas and fellow ultra-Orthodox party United Torah Judaism threatened to boycott votes on coalition bills today in order to protest the lack of legislation exempting yeshiva students from military service, causing the coalition to withdraw its bills from today’s Knesset agenda.

Despite the prime minister’s assurances to his ultra-Orthodox allies, legislation dealing with the issue of Haredi conscription — scorned by critics as an “evasion law” — has long been held up in the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, with Edelstein pledging to “only produce a real conscription law that will significantly increase the IDF’s conscription base.”

According to Edelstein, work on rewriting the law is slated to begin next week following months of hearings.

Initial Hebrew media reports do not list United Torah Judaism chairman Yitzchak Goldknopf as among those attending this evening’s meeting. Representatives of UTJ, Shas and Netanyahu’s Likud have not replied to inquiries regarding the party’s participation.