From the Liveblog of
Wednesday, July 16, 2025
Source says Edelstein went back on his commitments to ultra-Orthodox
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"
Despite claiming otherwise, Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee chairman Yuli Edelstein breached his June 12 compromise with the Haredi parties on enlistment, a coalition source with knowledge of the matter declares, backing up United Torah Judaism’s claim that the coalition “violated its commitments.”
Edelstein “could have been more honest and forthright with the Haredim through this process and there is truth in them saying that he took them for a ride,” the source tells The Times of Israel, adding that the senior Likud lawmaker believes that the fact that the Haredi parties violated their commitment to vote with the coalition justified his actions.
“They created a legislative bottleneck. It was never the agreement that the next bill passed would be theirs and that they would continue to block everything,” the source adds. “We need to govern and be able to pass laws. If the Haredim had lived up to their side and voted with us it would’ve been much more difficult for him to go back on his word.”
UTJ quit Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition Monday night after being presented with a copy of a proposed enlistment bill prepared by Edelstein, which it argued violated the terms of a compromise that was reached by the two sides last month when an effort was being made to prevent the Haredi parties from toppling the government ahead of the war with Iran. The rabbinic leadership of fellow Haredi party Shas is slated to meet this afternoon to decide if they will follow UTJ out of the coalition.
Edelstein has denied misleading Shas and UTJ or going back on his word, telling reporters in the Knesset yesterday that his proposal was “based on the principles that we have discussed throughout the legislative process” and that even after his agreement with Haredim, “it was clear to everyone that the drafting work was not finished.”
Instead, he asserted, it was the Haredi parties and not he who violated their agreement when they began boycotting coalition legislation and threatening to bring down the government following the war.
Addressing a conference this afternoon, Edelstein said that his door was open and called on the Haredim to “come with a concrete proposal.”
Edelstein added that he had asked the Haredim to convince their rabbinic leaders to call on members of the community not engaged in full-time yeshiva study to enlist but “so far, I have not heard or seen such a call.”
The Times of Israel Community.