Netanyahu returns to Israel to deal with IDF draft law coalition crisis

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu returned to Israel on Friday and set his sights on resolving the dispute over the military exemption bill that is threatening to topple his government.

After landing in Israel following a week in the US, it was announced that the prime minister would hold a series of meetings on Saturday evening with coalition members in a bid to reach a compromise over the bill.

Netanyahu is set to meet with Tourism Minister Yariv Levin (Likud), Deputy Health Minister Yaakov Litzman (United Torah Judaism), MK Moshe Gafni (also UTJ) and Interior Minister Aryeh Deri (Shas).

The crisis began when ultra-Orthodox MKs from UTJ announced last week they would not support the 2019 budget bill unless the coalition pushed through a bill that would ensure ultra-Orthodox seminary students were automatically exempted from military service.

The ultra-Orthodox parties’ insistence on passing a military conscription bill is strongly opposed by Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman, who has vowed that his Israel Beytenu party would not fold in the face of demands of their ultra-Orthodox coalition partners.

It was not immediately clear if Netanyahu would also be meeting with Liberman.

On Wednesday, speaking to reporters on the plane en route to New York from Washington, Netanyahu said he was not seeking early elections, but a fresh vote would be held if his coalition parties failed to reach compromise and commit to avoid infighting over the next year and a half.

Laying out his conditions for avoiding elections, Netanyahu said any bill on ultra-Orthodox enlistment must be backed by the entire coalition and provide a long-term solution.

Meanwhile, a compromise bill is being hammered out by the ultra-Orthodox parties and Jewish Home leaders Education Minister Naftali Bennett and Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked.

The content of the compromise bill is not yet clear, but it appears to reduce any sanctions against draft-dodging dramatically and to allow near-automatic granting of draft exemptions to ultra-Orthodox seminary students.

The compromise bill is set to be raised in the Ministerial Committee for Legislation on Sunday, which meets after the weekly morning cabinet meeting.

Liberman said in a statement to the press Thursday that Israel was being “held hostage by a group of extremists.” He emphasized that “I do not want elections, but I will not give up on our principles.”

“We will not conduct negotiations [on the draft law] with a gun to our head,” he said.

Liberman has long demanded that any military draft law be rooted in the needs of the military. He reiterated that demand this week, saying a special committee in his ministry will prepare “the best version of the law for the Israel Defense Forces and the people of Israel. Let it work!”

But by the evening, coalition sources said that Liberman had signaled a willingness to consider letting the UTJ bill — or at least a compromise version of it — move ahead to the first of three votes in the Knesset.

A Haredi-backed bill could receive government support by the Ministerial Committee for Legislation Sunday, get a first vote in the plenum early next week, then go to committee — where a compromise version might be hammered out, and voted on, before the Knesset goes on its spring recess at the end of next week.