In bid to keep Kadima in coalition, PM reportedly to accept many of panel’s universal draft recommendations

Despite attempts by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to prevent the Plesner committee from releasing its recommendations on Wednesday morning, MK Yohanan Plesner (Kadima) is planning to release the report at 10:00 a.m.

Following the release of the report, Kadima head Shaul Mofaz is expected to meet with Netanyahu. At stake in the meeting could be the survival of the coalition in its present form, as Kadima has threatened to join the opposition if Netanyahu refuses to accept the committee’s recommendations.

The creation of the Plesner panel, tasked with drafting universal enlistment legislation, was one of the main tenets of Kadima’s agreement to join the coalition in May. Netanyahu disbanded the committee on Monday,and Kadima responded by threatening to leave the government.

Netanyahu is reportedly willing to accept many of the committee’s recommendations,  but wants to keep the panel’s findings under wraps.

Among the committee’s recommendations are:

• Allowing draft deferment only until the age of 22. By the age of 22, all ultra-Orthodox men must declare whether they choose military or national civil service, and begin serving by the age of 23.
• During the initial stage, the number of yeshiva “prodigies” to be exempt from performing military or national civil service will be limited to 1,500, approximately 20% of those who are currently exempt. This number will be reduced in the future. Those students who are considered prodigies will continue their studies until the age of 26, at which time they will receive a full exemption from service.
• By 2016, 75% of the ultra-Orthodox men between the ages of 18-22 who are physically capable of serving in either a military or a national civil capacity will do so.
• Fines as high as tens of thousands of shekels for those who refuse to be drafted. Within six or seven years, a criminal recorded will be added to the fines. Moreover, anyone who does not serve in the IDF or national civil service will lose housing benefits reserved to those who have served. The government will also drastically reduce the budgets of all yeshiva that refuse to encourage their students to participate in either military or national civil service.

Netanyahu reportedly scrapped the panel after ultra-Orthodox parties objected to the sanctions on the ultra-Orthodox for not serving. Several members of the panel defected over the issues of sanctions and service for Arabs in the days before the committee was disbanded.

Under the current Tal Law, ultra-Orthodox yeshiva students are granted deferments from serving, a situation the High Court ruled was unconstitutional, necessitating the neec for new legislation.

While the government has said it wants to draft the ultra-Orthodox and Arabs into some sort of national service, Haredi groups have threatened mass protest if forced to serve. Shas party spiritiual leader Ovadiah Yosef said Tuesday that his party would bolt the coalition if sanctions go through.

Netanyahu enlisted the assistance of his ousted former bureau chief Natan Eshel to convince  Plesner not to publish the committee’s report. But Plesner was quoted on Tuesday night as saying that he would present the committee’s findings as planned on Wednesday morning, and that “the ball will then be in the court of the politicians.”

In order to perserve the coalition, Netanyahu has attempted several times since Monday to meet with Kadima head Shaul Mofaz. On Monday Mofaz said that he would not meet with Netanyahu until after the findings were published, and hinted he would reconsider the party’s future in the coalition.

Eshel reportedly spoke with a number of Kadima MKs on Tuesday to persuade them not to break away from the unity government, as several had vowed to do earlier in the day.

Eshel, who was ousted from the Prime Minister’s Bureau following a harassment scandal involving a colleague, had earlier been revealed to have been a key part in putting the wide coalition together.

Describing the current government as dysfunctional, Labor Party head Shelly Yachimovich called Tuesday for the Knesset to be dissolved and for early elections to be set.

“The elections were scheduled for September and staved off by the cynical survival exercise of Likud and Kadima, which left them in a huge, useless coalition that cannot even produce a reasonable consensus around the Tal Law” Yachimovich said.