The draft — dodging the economic issue?

Throughout history, leaders have been known to take two routes when faced with tough challenges: Some created yet another, more pressing matter and went to war; others solved other issues, marketing them as equally important.

Israeli politicians and leaders are no different, and the apparent coalition crisis brought on by Yesh Atid over the question of sanctions against ultra-Orthodox draft dodgers could prove to be just that — a distraction. Or, it could be the face of a new politics and an alternative set of values.

Yair Lapid’s party caught the nation by surprise in the January elections, winning over 15 percent of the vote and garnering 19 seats in the Knesset. Running on a platform of change and “new politics,” the party, in its first attempt, became the second-largest in Israel’s parliament, turning Lapid into a kingmaker overnight.

Success, as it is said, comes with a price. For Lapid, that meant appointment to one of Israel’s most powerful jobs, finance minister, which happens to be one of the most thankless positions, entailing a high chance of crucifixion by the public, the press, and politicians.

Lapid’s platform was — indeed is — a domestic one. As noted by his opponents during the elections, the former TV anchor did his best to avoid talking about diplomatic issues, including the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Four months after the elections, it’s clear Lapid and his party are focused on two domestic issues: the planned budget; and the need to change the status quo between the state and the ultra-Orthodox population, both in the army and in the workplace. Both are problems created before Lapid entered politics, and he’s tried to market himself as the problem solver, perhaps even as the country’s savior.

Planned budget cuts and austerity measures have chipped away at Lapid’s all-important public image and eroded his popularity. His policies have been said to be no different from those of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu or any other Likud finance minister.

When it comes to military service for the ultra-Orthodox, matters seem to be different. Talk of a coalition crisis began late Sunday, when Science, Technology and Space Minister Yaakov Peri, one of Yesh Atid’s most prominent members, refused to back down in the face of Likud’s Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon.

Ya’alon said he would oppose any measure to automatically criminalize ultra-Orthodox draft dodgers. However, Peri and the Yesh Atid faction consider sanctions a central aspect of the plan to integrate the ultra-Orthodox into military or national service.

Only time will tell, but it appears at the moment that Peri’s move and the ensuing talks about a coalition crisis point to two possible options: Lapid, like many politicians before him, could be using one issue to avoid a more difficult one, raising the stakes over military conscription to deflect criticism of the budget.

This might be strengthened by the feeling that Ya’alon beat Lapid — a former boxer — in the first round, when Netanyahu chose not to go head-to-head with the defense establishment over budget cuts the finance minister had asked for. In Round 2, Lapid might be putting up a fight.

Or, as it may yet turn out, Yesh Atid’s statements about new politics and a new approach, in which all people were treated the same for dodging military service, have moved from talk to practice.