Reservists fume after Edelstein reaches compromise with Haredim over enlistment law

IDF reservists feel “betrayed” by Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee chairman Yuli Edelstein, who reached a compromise with the Knesset’s ultra-Orthodox parties over the Haredi conscription law last night, says attorney Shvut Raanan, who represents the Reservists’ Wives Forum.

The new understandings between Edelstein and the Haredi lawmakers will delay by months, if not years, a number of planned sanctions against Haredi draft dodgers.

The agreement led most of the ultra-Orthodox lawmakers to withdraw support for a bill to disperse the Knesset.

Describing the move as a “moral injustice,” Raanan tells the Kan public broadcaster that the amended legislation cannot be allowed to go ahead.

“I’m waiting for Edelstein to explain to us what was agreed, and what is a bluff or not a bluff,” she says. “The outline is not a draft plan; it is an evasion plan. It is a plan for yeshiva recruitment.”

She says the Reservists’ Wives Forum will continue to campaign for an alternative conscription law, saying, “We can’t let this pass.”

“They will have to take us into account, or we will replace them,” she says of the government.

“The belief that it is possible to continue fighting with a few worn-out people is not correct,” she adds.