Netanyahu's government postponed a cabinet meeting scheduled for Tuesday to approve a draft bill dealing with Haredi, or ultra-Orthodox, joining the IDF after continued opposition from the attorney general and other legal advisers.
The government amended its proposal on Monday to address issues raised by Attorney General Ghali Baharahu Miara, who said the bill could not be defended as written.
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But that is unlikely to be the only significant change made by the government. Haredi men would be exempt from conscription, but other issues remain that would make it broad enough to win support from the attorney general. Primarily, in her view, the brief is a rehash of an arrangement that has already been disqualified by the High Court.
The attorney general also took issue with the process by which the government arrived at its outline, saying it had failed to seek “professional and fact-based” opinions from “relevant departments”.
The general principles of the government's proposals include gradually increasing Haredim recruitment targets, economic incentives (both positive and negative) to encourage service, and special battalions to accommodate ultra-Orthodox religious sensibilities. , and Haredim who wish to perform alternative forms of national service.
Joining the Attorney-General in criticizing the government's proposals was Ashi Messing, the Treasury's legal adviser, who wrote to Downing Street on Monday protesting the government's disregard for the economic impact of the proposals. Ta.
In the draft bill, the government simply wrote “not relevant'' under “economic impact'' (a standard clause in any law).
“There are significant economic implications for the state's economy and budget situation,” Messing countered, adding that the Treasury Department believes Haredi recruitment will increase ultra-Orthodox productivity and facilitate their integration into the labor market. He pointed out that he believed that.
He also complained that the ministry's professional staff had not been consulted by the government.
Messing's letter is similar to one sent to Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich on Sunday by Yogev Gradus, head of the budget department at the Ministry of Finance, in which he explained how the government's proposals could have a negative impact on the economy. .
This is not the first obstacle to the coalition's attempts to address the high-profile challenge of Haredi enlistment. The government had originally intended to table the proposal at a cabinet meeting on March 17, but withdrew it after Defense Minister Yoav Galant and Minister for Non-Portfolio Benny Gantz expressed opposition.
When Netanyahu announced his next move this week, Gantz insisted it did not go far enough to solve the problem and said he would leave the government if the bill became law.
high court
The urgent need to address Hadi's enlistment comes as an interim order approved by the government in June delaying action on the issue expires this week. The High Court has put further pressure on the government, ordering it to respond by the end of this week to an interim order last month that prevented further deferrals for ultra-Orthodox recruits.
Also under pressure are the needs of the Israel Defense Forces, which is understaffed after deciding it needed a larger standing army following the October 7 massacre. As a stopgap measure, the Diet passed a provisional measure to raise the service age for reservists by one year. The age for non-commissioned officers was raised from 40 to 41. For executives, ages 45 to 46.
This move further infuriated the majority of the Israeli public. Already outraged by decades of near-total exemptions for ultra-Orthodox men, ultra-Orthodox leaders have prevented them from military service and work, leaving them corrupt and distracting from Torah study. It is regarded as .
number of young people It is estimated that between 63,000 and 66,000 Haredi men study in yeshivot and qualify for IDF service.
Since October 7, only 1,140 Haredim have enlisted, 600 of whom were over the age of 26, the current exemption age.
While few dispute that haredi recruitment is an issue that needs to be addressed, some members of the coalition believe that current efforts to pursue the issue are aimed at ousting the government. Looking.
Likud Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi accused Gantz and Gallant of collaborating to overthrow the government.
“The problem of recruiting ultra-Orthodox people for whom 'Torah is not their livelihood' needs to be fixed, but there is an urgent need to do this now in a historic and unprecedented way.” This erroneous expression needs to be corrected.” combination knot [Israeli slang for shady backroom deals]As Gantz said, this is nothing but a transparent operation to overthrow the government,” Karhi said in a lengthy tweet on Tuesday.
“In the High Court, the Attorney General (who should have been removed long ago), Mr. Gantz and Mr. Gallant are colluding to overthrow the government, with the support of the media, of course,” he added. .
Karhi argued that the personnel issue could be resolved immediately if the Israel Defense Forces reinstated tens of thousands of reservists who were exempted for “laziness and negligence” when replacing computer systems. “Nobody's going to hire them,” he says.
For more than 70 years, a policy dating back to the early days of the Israeli state has allowed ultra-Orthodox Yeshiva students to indefinitely defer mandatory military service in order to study religious studies full-time.
The exemption was originally intended to apply only to an elite few hundred people; yeshiva Over time, the students turned into a widespread deferral that claims nearly all men in the island nation's ultra-Orthodox community.
Because the birth rate was twice that of other Israelis, and the exemption was permanent from generation to generation, the number of people taking advantage of this arrangement soared.
everyone knows
David Weinberg, a senior fellow at the Misgab Institute for National Security and Zionist Strategic Studies in Jerusalem, told JNS: .
“However, ultra-Orthodox leaders will not let go of their strict communal structure of full-time, lifelong Torah study. Regardless of Supreme Court rulings or parliamentary legislation, no one will “Ultra-Orthodox Israeli Jews cannot be forced into military service against their will,” he continued.
“Many committees and many initiatives have been tried over the years, but none have worked. If there is a serious will to recruit ultra-Orthodox students, there is a way. But first You have to have the will to do it first,” Weinberg said.
“I'm not optimistic that this problem will be resolved, and certainly not with the current political timeline dictated by the High Court or the current government. Change will only happen in the very long term.”
Mr Weinberg believes the government will find yet another stopgap solution, introduced in the meantime, that will maintain the status quo for several years until the High Court rules again.
Asked about the surge in ultra-Orthodox Jews joining the military since the start of the current war with Hamas, Weinberg replied: It was attended by people from the fringes of that society, primarily older men who had completed their time in the yeshiva.
“These conscripts primarily serve in support jobs and do not serve as full-time soldiers. This does not meet the needs of the Israel Defense Forces. We desperately need it. So, while that's great, it doesn't address the real problem,” he said.
BDO Consulting Group, one of Israel's leading business consulting firms, recently released a report on the plan, which estimated that the increase would cost the Israeli economy more than 5.8 billion shekels ($1.585 billion) annually. Said to bring.
The report also found that if an estimated 66,000 ultra-Orthodox students were drafted into the military, the need for reserve tax increases would be significantly reduced, reducing the economic impact on Israeli society by an estimated 70%. He also said that there would be.
Raphael Poch contributed to this report.
