Second member of Smotrich’s party says he’ll leave party over stance on Haredi draft

Religious Zionism MK Moshe Solomon becomes the second member of Bezalel Smotrich’s party — after Minister Ofir Sofer — to declare he won’t run for reelection over the faction’s non-opposition to a series of laws enshrining Haredi non-enlistment to the IDF.

“I believe in service in the IDF, in common sharing of the right to serve, as part of the responsibility for building the country and the entire nation,” he says on X. “When the party chose to give up those principles, I felt like I could no longer look my public in the eye and tell it that I represent it as expected of me.

“The faction’s decisions in the last few votes, as well as the decision to oust me from committees due to my value-based choice and the fulfillment of my public mission, proved to me that the party’s stance is different from the stance I represent.”

Smotrich removed Solomon from all Knesset committees for breaking coalition discipline and voting against a quasi-constitutional government bill that would equate Torah study with military service.