UTJ’s Eichler appointed deputy communications minister, preventing him from voting against conscription bill

By Ariela Karmel

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15 January 2026, 12:19 pm

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Ariela Karmel is a political correspondent at The Times of Israel. She previously reported for Calcalist and Haaretz. She holds an MA in Middle Eastern and African History from Tel Aviv University and a BA in Political Science from the University of British Columbia.

United Torah Judaism MK Yisrael Eichler chairs a Knesset Labor and Welfare Committee meeting in Jerusalem, on June 30, 2025. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

United Torah Judaism MK Yisrael Eichler will be appointed deputy communications minister, according to Hebrew media reports, in a move by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that will prevent him from voting against the government’s draft regulation bill for yeshiva students, as he will no longer be a member of Knesset, and also will allow former UTJ MK Yitzhak Pindrus to reenter the Knesset and vote in favor.

Ministers are expected to approve the appointment today.

Under the agreement, Eichler, who is a member of UTJ party leader Yitzhak Goldknopf’s Agudat Yisrael faction, which opposes the current draft law, will resign from the Knesset and be appointed to the cabinet under the so-called Norwegian law.

This will allow Pindrus, from MK Moshe Gafni’s Degel Hatorah faction, which supports the bill in its current form, to reenter the Knesset and vote in support of the measure.

Pindrus was one of three UTJ MKs pushed out of the Knesset in July under the Norwegian Law, following the resignations of the party’s ministers when UTJ quit the government over the failure to pass a draft exemption bill.

That led Agudat Yisrael to hold four seats within the Knesset, while Degel HaTorah had only three, causing negotiations within the party over faction control. The new arrangement is a compromise that restores balance between the two, and more significantly allows Netanyahu to both neutralize an opponent of the bill and secure another vote in its favor.

As part of his role, Eichler will reportedly be given authority to oversee the Lag B’Omer pilgrimage to Mount Meron, which draws hundreds of thousands of participants largely from the ultra-Orthodox community.