From the Liveblog of
Wednesday, June 11, 2025
UTJ-Shas meeting on coalition crisis reportedly fails to produce any agreement
Add ToI as a Preferred Source on GoogleSam 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"
A meeting between Shas and Degel Hatorah representatives in the office of Deputy Transportation Minister Uri Maklev has failed to produce any agreement regarding a proposed compromise agreement on ultra-Orthodox enlistment, Hebrew media reports.
According to Ynet, Shas is currently placing pressure on the Degel HaTorah faction within UTJ to withdraw its support for measures to dissolve the Knesset for at least another week in order to provide Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu with more time to broker an agreement.
The ultra-Orthodox Kikar Hashabbat website reports that within the Degel Hatorah faction of United Torah Judaism, there is a split on whether or not to vote in favor of a measure to dissolve the Knesset — a move backed by the party’s senior rabbinic leadership.
Before a separate meeting with coalition whip Ofir Katz of Likud, Maklev told the Kikar Hashabbat website that there had been some progress and that he was hopeful.
Meanwhile, Behadrei Haredim, another Haredi news site, reports that the Haredim are demanding a written commitment from Netanyahu regarding concessions on enlistment.
Talks between senior coalition figures and Haredi representatives have centered on the possibility that some sanctions on draft dodgers contained in an enlistment bill making its way through the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee could be postponed by half a year or more.
Addressing the Knesset plenum, MK Tally Gotliv slams fellow Likud lawmaker Yuli Edelstein, who chairs the committee, asserting that “he cannot be the chairman” because “he is undermining the prime minister and the government.”
The Times of Israel Community.