Conscription impasse leaves legal vacuum and coalition crisis

A meeting between Vice Prime Minister Moshe Ya’alon and MK Yohanan Plesner focused on drafting universal conscription legislation ended Wednesday with the two sides unable to come together, and with Plesner storming out. The deadlock again threatened the future of the two-month-old Likud-Kadima coalition, which has been repeatedly strained by disputes over drafting ultra-Orthodox and Arab Israelis.

Sources in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said the prime minister is coming to terms with the fact that no replacement to the Tal Law will be drafted before the Knesset breaks later this month for its summer recess.

The Tal Law, which for 10 years granted virtual exemptions from military or national service for ultra-Orthodox yeshiva students, was struck down earlier this year by the Supreme Court. It is due to expire on August 1.

Kadima’s Knesset faction convened a special session Wednesday afternoon to discuss the day’s developments and how to proceed. Mofaz then met with the prime minister Wednesday evening, but that meeting produced no new results. More talks were planned for Thursday.

Kadima MKs criticized their party chairman over the “fake crisis and the ensuing farce” regarding the negotiations to formulate a legislative alternative to the Tal Law. At Wednesday’s meeting, the MKs were told that Kadima would remain in the coalition, for now.

With talks over replacement legislation falling apart, the absence of a law regarding ultra-Orthodox conscription should ostensibly mean that all Haredi 18-year-olds will be drafted into military or national service. However, Netanyahu, in coordination with Defense Minister Ehud Barak, will apparently freeze the drafting of ultra-Orthodox Jews until the Knesset has a chance to legislate a new law on the issue in its next session.

Plesner on Wednesday accused the prime minister of flip-flopping multiple times over the past two months on the issue of universal conscription.

According to sources close to the prime minister, Netanyahu does not believe he can garner a majority in the Knesset with any draft legislation at this point.

Plesner (Kadima) and Ya’alon (Likud) were tasked Sunday with coming up with a law that would bring the ultra-Orthodox and Arabs into the military or national service fold, but talks reportedly stalled over the issue of how to punish draft dodgers.

Plesner and Ya’alon had hoped to emerge with a draft by Wednesday, in time for the bill to go the Knesset early next week.

Plesner stormed out of the meeting when the two reached an impasse. Ya’alon told Netanyahu he didn’t understand why, and that he had thought the meeting was going well.

“[Plesner] wants to declare war on the ultra-Orthodox,” said the vice prime minister. “Our duty is to prevent a rupture.”

Ya’alon added: “Whoever wants to see the ultra-Orthodox serve in the IDF can follow our way; whoever wants to see them in prison should go [Plesner’s] way.”

Speaking to Israel’s Channel 2, Ya’alon advocated Wednesday evening for gradual incorporation of the ultra-Orthodox in the military. “You can’t change a 64-year-old reality overnight,” he said. “Why talk immediately of sanctions and jailing [draft dodgers]? That only enflames the Haredi community,” he added.

Mofaz had conditioned his party’s joining the coalition on the adoption of the Plesner committee’s recommendations.

A source in Kadima speculated that Netanyahu changed tack following Tuesday’s acquittal of former prime minister Ehud Olmert on corruption charges; the source said the prime minister was worried his religious coalition allies would abandon him in favor of Olmert, should the former prime minister decide to launch a political comeback. Olmert headed the Kadima party during his term as prime minister.

“Since Olmert’s acquittal the Likud had become more stubborn in its stance in an effort to ruin negotiations,” the source said. “He [Netanyahu] is afraid that Kadima will gain strength.”

Representatives of IDF reservists, who brought the issue of universal conscription to the fore earlier this year with the initiation of the Suckers’ tent movement, vowed Wednesday to petition the Supreme Court if the government failed to come up with legislation that distributed the burden of service equally among all Israeli citizens.