Smotrich slams Edelstein for ‘unfair’ withdrawal of compromise Haredi enlistment bill

By Sam Sokol 23 July 2025, 10:10 am

Edit

Sam Sokol is a former political correspondent at The Times of Israel. 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"

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, right, attends a Knesset conference discussing Jewish settlement in the Gaza Strip at the Knesset in Jerusalem, July 22, 2025. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich harshly criticizes Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee chairman Yuli Edelstein (Likud) for reversing himself after reaching a compromise on conscription with the Haredim last month.

“Unfortunately, he retracted [the compromise bill] in an unfair and inappropriate manner,” Smotrich tells Army Radio, calling the agreements reached with the Haredim in June “excellent.”

“The Haredim are going to raise their hands in favor of a law that sets a target of 50 percent of each draft cohort within five years — I didn’t believe they would agree,” he says, arguing that the now-scuttled agreement would have led to the conscription of the Haredim.

Last Monday, the Haredi United Torah Judaism party quit the coalition after being presented with a copy of a proposed enlistment bill prepared by Edelstein, which they argued violated the terms of a compromise reached as part of an effort to prevent the Haredim from toppling the government ahead of the war with Iran.

They were followed on Wednesday by Sephardic ultra-Orthodox party Shas, which bolted the government while, unlike UTJ, remaining a member of the coalition.

Edelstein has said any conscription law would have to include sanctions on draft dodgers and their institutions. The bill he presented failed to deliver on several key Haredi demands, including offering full amnesty to yeshiva students who have already received and ignored enlistment orders.

This afternoon, Likud lawmakers are slated to vote on a replacement for Edelstein as chairman of the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee over his refusal to advance the compromise bill.

While Likud MK Hanoch Milwidsky is widely seen as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s preferred choice, his candidacy has been opposed by many Likud MKs who argue he is unqualified. According to national broadcaster Kan, Shas and UTJ’s Degel Hatorah faction informed Netanyahu that they support MK Boaz Bismuth as committee chair.

In a statement last night, Degel Hatorah chairman Moshe Gafni told reporters that his party “has no connection” to the vote and “is not intervening” in it.