Shas spiritual head said to sharpen threat to bring down government, abandon Netanyahu

The spiritual head of the Shas political party has reportedly ordered the faction to sharpen its threats to bring down the government if the coalition does not come to an agreement with ultra-Orthodox parties on exempting yeshiva students from military service.

According to the Kikar Hashabbat news site, Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef, who wields wide influence over the party’s positions, told former Shas minister Ariel Atias during a meeting Wednesday night that he should make clear to Netanyahu that the lack of an agreement will mean the end of his government.

He also reportedly told Atias that Shas should explore working with parties from across the aisle to secure its demands following early elections, indicating that it will end a years-long arrangement by which it practically granted Netanyahu automatic backing in line with a 2019 pledge.

“The point of our mission in the Knesset is strengthening and preserving Torah study, without which we have no right to exist, and so we must act in any way with anyone who is ready to help in this matter, and there’s no loyalty to the right or any other ideology,” Yosef told Atias, according to the report.

Atias and Netanyahu are slated hold a meeting today with Likud MK Yuli Edelstein to try and smooth over the issue, after Shas joined the United Torah Judaism party in threatening to bring the government down this week.

Efforts to pass a bill exempting Haredi men from military service have become snagged by Edelstein’s refusal to allow through the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, which he heads, a bill that does not levy sanctions on draft dodgers, which Haredi lawmakers reject.

Elections are formally scheduled for October 2026.