PM said to phone Haredi leader from hospital to vow Knesset will advance draft exemption law

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is reported to have called United Torah Judaism party chairman and Housing Minister Yitzhak Goldknopf from his hospital room a day after undergoing prostate surgery to promise that the Knesset would advance a conscription law, as demanded by the ultra-Orthodox.

According to the Kan national broadcaster, Goldknopf replied that Netanyahu previously made a similar promise and declined to back down from a threat to vote against a budget-related bill in the Knesset tomorrow unless presented with a draft of a bill that satisfies his demands.

Goldknopf said Agudat Yisrael — the Hasidic faction within UTJ — would vote against the bill as a “warning sign,” the Walla news site reports. An Agudat Yisrael official is quoted as saying the faction is “not looking to bring down the government,” and just wants Netanyahu “to finally fulfill his commitment.”

This morning, the ultra-Orthodox Hamodia daily reported that members of Agudat Yisrael believe there is “no point” in supporting the budget-related bill before the issue of IDF exemptions for yeshiva students is settled, and will therefore vote against it.

Passing legislation to enshrine ultra-Orthodox exemptions from military service after they were struck down by the High Court this summer has become one of Goldknopf’s chief legislative priorities. In October, he appeared to back down, at least temporarily, from a threat to derail government budget talks over the issue.

Failure to pass a budget by March 31 would result in the automatic dissolution of the government and early elections, adding potency to this threat.

Instead, UTJ put its weight behind the so-called Daycare Bill, which sought to circumvent a High Court ruling preventing state-funded daycare subsidies from going to the children of ultra-Orthodox men who evade the draft.

However, due to internal opposition from within the coalition, that bill was also taken off the Knesset agenda, further angering the ultra-Orthodox.

Legislation dealing with the issue of ultra-Orthodox enlistment is currently stuck in the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, whose chairman, Likud MK Yuli Edelstein, has said that the needs of the IDF must come first and that the panel will only advance the legislation if lawmakers can reach a “broad consensus” on the matter.