Opposition heads meet, vow to fight government’s Haredi ‘evasion law,’ judicial ‘coup’
Again avoiding photo-op, leaders of so-called change bloc pledge to ‘continue to work with all our might to bring about elections as quickly as possible’
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"
The leaders of Zionist opposition parties met Saturday evening to continue their coordination of a bloc that will run against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in next year’s elections.
The so-called anti-Netanyahu change bloc is an alliance of right-wing, centrist and left-wing parties that seek to oust Netanyahu and his hard-right coalition, and have been working to create a mechanism for coordinating their efforts.
It is comprised of Opposition Leader Yair Lapid, former prime minister Naftali Bennett, Yisrael Beytenu party chairman Avigdor Liberman, Yashar! With Eisenkot party chief Gadi Eisenkot, Blue and White party head Benny Gantz, and The Democrats party leader Yair Golan. All of them also met last month, with an earlier meeting featuring all except Bennett and Gantz.
Notably, none of the meetings have seen the group release a joint photo of the participating politicians.
Though they are aligned with the bloc, Bennett and Gantz haven’t expressly stated they won’t sit in a government led by Netanyahu.
Bennett is not currently serving in the Knesset, but his new party, dubbed Bennett 2026, consistently finishes at or near the top of opinion polls, alongside Netanyahu’s Likud.
The heads of the bloc released a joint statement Saturday promising to fight against the government’s efforts to pass an “evasion law” regulating ultra-Orthodox enlistment “in the Knesset, on the streets and in the legal arena,” and referred to the coalition’s judicial overhaul agenda as a “regime coup” — a first for Bennett and Liberman.
In the statement, the politicians welcomed recent progress in returning the bodies of the remaining hostages held in Gaza, and said that they “discussed advancing the bloc’s strategy for victory in the elections.”
“We intend to fight against the evasion law in the Knesset, on the streets and in the legal arena. Due to the heavy burden on regular troops and reservists, we demand that the army act according to the law and increase efforts to recruit the ultra-Orthodox. The vast majority of the people of Israel want equal recruitment for all and we will fight to make it happen,” they stated.
“The continued attempts to undermine the legal system and media laws are a complete repetition of the judicial coup and an attempt to interfere in the election process in an election year — we will not allow this and will fight it,” they continued, referring to the judicial overhaul legislation, while pledging to “continue to work with all our might to bring about elections as quickly as possible” and form a state commission of inquiry into the failure surrounding Hamas’s onslaught of October 7, 2023.
A bill that would give the government significant control over broadcast media, news sites and other media passed its first reading in the Knesset on Tuesday. At the same time, lawmakers are advancing a series of government-backed bills intended to significantly weaken the power of the attorney general, effectively depriving the position of all authority and independence.
The Ministerial Committee for Legislation also recently approved a bill aimed at hampering Bennett’s electoral run.
The Times of Israel Community.