National Unity’s Kahana: We’re not using Haredi draft to try and bring down coalition
But lawmaker insists the ultra-Orthodox must do national service, and doubles down on criticism of ‘worst government’ in Israeli history
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"
On Sunday evening, after Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich blamed the IDF for the country’s failure to prevent Hamas’s October 7 massacre, MK Matan Kahana launched a scathing social media attack on the far-right government.
Smotrich, wrote the National Unity party lawmaker, “does not even begin to understand the meaning of responsibility,” while the government he serves is “the worst and most terrible” in Israel’s history.
What was notable about Kahana’s post on X was that his party is a member of the government he was denouncing, having joined as an emergency measure at the start of the war. His remark — paired with his party leader and war cabinet Minister Benny Gantz’s decision to boycott a recent government meeting — gave rise to speculation that National Unity’s continued presence in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition may be in question.
Speaking with the Times of Israel on Tuesday, Kahana said that while his party believes “we need to go to elections as soon as possible — this year,” it is not taking any action to hasten that process. Elections are not scheduled until 2026.
“We’re not using the issue of enlistment in order to bring down the government,” he insisted, calling disputes between coalition parties over the Haredi draft exemption “something that needs to be solved” rather than an issue for election leverage.
“Especially now, everyone understands that the matter of the draft is not just a social issue of equality, but it’s really a question of the security of the State of Israel,” he said.
He expressing frustration over a recent report that the government is considering raising the age of exemption from the IDF for ultra-Orthodox men. According to Hebrew daily Israel Hayom, members of the coalition are drafting legislation based on recommendations by members of the security establishment that would raise the exemption age to somewhere between 35 and 40.
Ultra-Orthodox, or Haredi, men of military age have been able to avoid drafting to the IDF for decades by enrolling for study in yeshivas and obtaining repeated one-year service deferrals until they reach the age of military exemption at 26.
Raising the exemption age would require ultra-Orthodox men to spend an extra decade or longer in yeshiva to avoid the draft.
However, backers of the proposal to raise the exemption age argue that requiring young Haredi men to stay in yeshiva for decades to receive an exemption, instead of allowing them to enter the workforce in their twenties, could deter them from signing up for a lifetime of study and instead encourage their enlistment.
Kahana said, “We believe that ultimately every young man and woman in Israel needs to perform sort of service in the State of Israel — either national service or military service.”
Many young ultra-Orthodox men are reportedly enrolled in yeshiva despite not actually studying, a problem that Kahana says the government has ignored in order to preserve Netanyahu’s political alliance with the Haredi parties.
Despite this, he admitted that “unfortunately” the previous government of Naftali Bennett, in which he served as religious services minister, “didn’t manage to deal with it” either.
A history of tension
Since February, Gantz and his fellow National Unity minister Gadi Eisenkot have been busy promoting their own plan for ultra-Orthodox enlistment, which calls for gradual annual increases in the number of Haredim doing military service, but does not detail specific quotas.
Complaining that Netanyahu has refused to seriously discuss his proposal, Gantz last week announced that he was boycotting a meeting on enlistment attended by the prime minister, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, Shas leader Aryeh Deri and other members of the government.
In a statement, the National Unity party said it would participate in any substantive discussion of the issue, but “will not be a partner to exercises and tricks at the expense of the state’s security needs.”
Gantz’s absence marked the second time this year that he had skipped a meeting with Netanyahu, highlighting the growing tensions between the factions comprising Israel’s wartime cabinet.
Only days after a meeting called to deal with the question of postwar Gaza ended in acrimony and recriminations in January, ministers Gantz, Eisenkot and Chili Tropper had skipped a weekly cabinet meeting due to what they claimed was an expected lack of substantive discussion of war-related issues.
“There were no essential issues for the conduct of the war, and therefore we did not come,” a spokesman for Gantz told The Times of Israel at the time. “When topics related to the war come up, Benny will come.”
However, speaking with Army Radio, Tropper linked his absence to the previous week’s security cabinet meeting, during which right-wing ministers repeatedly assailed IDF Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi over the military’s plan to probe its own mistakes in the lead-up to Hamas’s devastating October 7 onslaught.
“These things are related to the clashes in the cabinet,” Tropper said. “We are sticking to issues related to the war. It isn’t easy for us in the government.”
A break in the coalition?
Asked if Gantz’s decision to boycott last Thursday’s meeting on the Haredi draft issue presaged a break in the coalition, Kahana again insisted that the decision was based on substantive factors and not political ones.
“Benny Gantz decided not to go to the meeting because it was an invitation without an agenda. They didn’t say what law they were going to discuss. It was just words in the air,” he said.
However, he added, “If there is no solution [to the Haredi draft issue], it is definitely possible that this will be something that causes us to weigh our continued path in this government.”
“As opposed to what some of the public thinks — that we are just looking for an opportunity to leave — for us it’s the opposite. We feel the weight of the responsibility on our ministers’ shoulders and so we remain in the government,” he continued. “As long as we feel we have influence we will remain. If we feel that [our presence in the coalition is] pointless we will leave.”
Kahana reiterated that Netanyahu is presiding over “the worst government in the history of the State of Israel” and insisted that “it is appropriate that he resigns after the war.”
A centrist party with a very strong right wing
Last week, MK Gideon Sa’ar announced the breakup of the National Unity alliance, taking his three fellow New Hope-The United Right MKs with him and essentially stripping the party of its right-wing flank. Sa’ar also demanded a seat on the war cabinet — something that Gantz has opposed, as has Kahana.
Following Sa’ar’s announced departure, Kahana wrote on X, formerly Twitter, that he was sticking with Gantz, and declared that National Unity remained “a center party with a strong right wing, which I’m sure will get even stronger in the future.”
“When the time comes to engage in politics,” Kahana said in his interview, “the right wing will be greatly strengthened and people on the right will feel very comfortable voting for National Unity.”
