From the Liveblog of
Wednesday, July 2, 2025
Smotrich accused of failing voters by letting Haredim escape draft
Sam Sokol is the Times of Israel's political correspondent. He was previously a reporter for the Jerusalem Post, Jewish Telegraphic Agency and Haaretz. He is the author of "Putin’s Hybrid War and the Jews"
Blue and White MK Chili Tropper slams Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich in an interview with Kan news radio, accusing the leader of the Religious Zionism party of failing to represent the interests of the national-religious community by not expanding military conscription to the ultra-Orthodox community.
“We have almost no synagogue or community that hasn’t paid a huge price,” Tropper says of the national-religious demographic considered a major part of Smotrich’s voter base.
Conscripting more ultra-Orthodox would ease that burden on the community, but Smotrich “has not brought about any change or addition to the expansion of the ranks since the beginning of the war,” he says.
In response, Smotrich, who is also a junior minister in the Defense Ministry, tells Kan he backs ultra-Orthodox conscription, despite being part of a government that has failed to bolster Haredi draft numbers. “Drafting ultra-Orthodox Jews is the need of the hour — ethically, morally, and religiously.”
He asserts that the government “will bring about a fundamental change in drafting ultra-Orthodox Jews into the IDF, period.”
Hitting back, Blue and White says a different government, one that is not subject to Haredi “political blackmail,” would have already made it happen.
According to government data published today by financial daily The Marker, the cost of the mass mobilization of reservists for the first half of the year has been in the billions of shekels, a number that would have been significantly lower had the IDF been able to recruit more regular service troops.
Speaking with Radio Kol Barama on Tuesday evening, United Torah Judaism MK Moshe Roth warned that the ultra-Orthodox could increase pressure on the government to pass a law granting draft exemptions for yeshiva students unless the coming days see progress on the issue.
UTJ is already boycotting private member bills by coalition MKs and could soon turn to its rabbinic leadership to discuss “intensifying measures,” he said.
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