Report: Before joining another Netanyahu coalition, Haredim to demand permanent IDF exemption law

Following today’s passage of the law temporarily banning the arrest and prosecution of Haredi draft dodgers, ultra-Orthodox politicians in the Knesset tell reporters that their “rift” with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is over.

One senior member of a Haredi party tells Channel 12, however, that, after the October election, if the results go their way, the Haredi parties will demand legislation permanently exempting all ultra-Orthodox men from military service, and that they will insist this legislation be passed before formally joining another Netanyahu-led coalition. (Most ultra-Orthodox young men do not do military or national service, but this is not enshrined in law.)

“Netanyahu proved today that we are a single [political] bloc, but that is not enough,” the unnamed senior Haredi politician is quoted as saying. “After the elections, we will demand an IDF draft law permanently [exempting Haredim from IDF service], before we establish a government. We’ve learned how to work with him.”

Channel 12 quotes unnamed military sources lamenting that, with today’s law, the IDF now has no leverage to get Haredim to serve, even as it urgently needs thousands more combat soldiers, and that it will now also have to free several dozen Haredi draft dodgers from military jails.