Latest news with #YizhakGoldknopf
Yahoo
5 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Leading rabbi to instruct ultra-Orthodox faction to exit Netanyahu's coalition
Haredi leader hints at coalition exit over IDF draft bill delays, potentially collapsing the government. In a significant political development on Wednesday, leading haredi Lithuanian rabbi Moshe Hillel Hirsch said in a statement that he would 'likely' instruct the Degel Hatorah faction to leave the coalition 'soon' over the government's failure to pass a law that would exempt a majority of eligible haredi men from IDF service. According to the statement, MKs updated Hirsch on Tuesday night that from a meeting with Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee chairman MK Yuli Edelstein (Likud), who is responsible for advancing the bill, 'It is clear that there is no progress at all on the subject of the [IDF] draft. As such, the Rosh Yeshiva [Hirsch] will likely order to leave the coalition in the near future.' According to a spokesperson for Hirsch, the statement also represented the view of the second leading Lithuanian haredi rabbi, Dov Lando. The Lithuanian rabbis thus appeared to join the position of United Torah Judaism's Hassidic faction led by Housing Minister Yizhak Goldknopf, who represents Hassidut Gur. Goldknopf has been threatening to leave the government over the draft issue since March. However, while Goldknopf advocated on Tuesday to pass a bill to disperse the Knesset, which will automatically lead to an election, the statement by Hirsch did not mention this. A spokesperson for Hirsch clarified to the Post that the directive to leave the coalition would include supporting such a bill and heading to an election. The Sephardic-haredi party Shas did not comment on Hirsch's statement on Wednesday morning. Still, it was highly unlikely that Shas would remain in government if UTJ left, according to a source. Following Hirsch's statement, the opposition parties Yesh Atid, Democrats, and Yisrael Beytenu announced that early next week, they will launch legislation to disperse the Knesset. The legislation would require passing a preliminary vote, after which it would require passing three additional votes in the Knesset plenum. This process could take weeks, but if Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu decides to support it and head to an election, it would pass far quicker. Edelstein's office put out a statement close to midnight on Tuesday night that a meeting between him and haredi representatives had ended. 'The meeting was held in good spirits, and additional meetings were set on the matter,' Edelstein said. The Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee's legal team has been working on formulating the text of a bill, which will reach the committee in the coming weeks. However, this may not leave enough time for the bill proposal to pass into law by the end of the Knesset summer session in late July, in which case the current law, which requires that all eligible haredi men serve in the IDF, will continue to apply as is at least until October. In any case, if the Knesset disperses, the bill cannot proceed. The bill proposal will likely include draft quotas from the haredi sector that will increase annually, eventually reaching 50% of each graduating class, as well as sanctions on individuals who ignore draft orders. Despite the fact that the previous legal exemption expired in June 2024, a vast majority of the approximately 24,000 draft orders to haredi men since then have been ignored. The IDF has already stated that it will not meet the goal it committed to in the High Court, of 4,800 haredi draftees in the 2024-2025 draft year, which will end on June 30. Supporters have argued that the bill will lead to an immediate increase in the number of draftees and bring thousands more haredim into the army. Critics, however, have countered that there is no guarantee that even with new sanctions, those who receive orders with the new law in place will actually respect them; and that there is no legal justification to enable 50% of haredim to continue being exempt from service, while secular and religious-Zionist Israelis do not enjoy the same privilege. Channel 12's Amit Segal quoted a 'senior Likud official' as saying that Edelstein's political resistance is dragging Israel into elections during a significant operation in Gaza, when Hamas is still holding the hostages, and Iran's nuclear threat remains. "This is madness and complete irresponsibility, all due to narrow political considerations and personal vendetta," the official said. Edelstein's spokesperson, Maayan Samun, responded on X, "If drafting haredim in a reality where there's a war for our home — when my brothers are worn out from reserve duty, when their families are collapsing, and when couples are getting divorced because they can't handle the burden of reserve duty — is considered 'personal revenge,' then I am in favor of revenge."
Yahoo
6 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Elections soon? Housing minister pushing to initiate bill to disperse Knesset
According to Israeli law, if a bill to disperse the Knesset passes, an election is automatically called and must occur within 90 days. Ultra-Orthodox (haredi) Housing Minister Yizhak Goldknopf is pressuring fellow haredi politicians to begin legislating a bill to disperse the Knesset as leverage to push the government to move forward with a bill to regulate haredi service in the IDF, a spokesperson for Goldknopf confirmed on Tuesday morning. United Torah Judaism (UTJ), the Ashkenazi-haredi party that Goldknopf chairs, will convene on Tuesday afternoon in the Knesset to discuss its next steps. The rabbinical leaders of UTJ's Lithuanian branch, Degel Hatorah, will convene on Wednesday to decide whether or not to follow the more hawkish stance of UTJ's Hassidic branch of led by Hassidut Gur, which Goldknopf represents. According to Israeli law, if a bill to disperse the Knesset passes, an election is automatically called and must occur within 90 days. The Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee has been working on formulating the text of a bill, which will reach the committee in the coming weeks. However, this may not leave enough time for the bill proposal to pass into law by the end of the Knesset summer session in late July, in which case the current law, which requires that all eligible haredi men serve in the IDF, will continue to apply as is at least until October. The bill proposal will likely include draft quotas from the haredi sector that will increase annually, eventually reaching 50% of each graduating class, as well as sanctions on individuals who ignore draft orders. Despite the fact that the previous legal exemption expired in June 2024, a vast majority of the approximately 24,000 draft orders to haredi men since then have been ignored. The IDF has already stated that it will not meet the goal it committed to in the High Court, of 4,800 haredi draftees in the 2024-2025 draft year, which will end on June 30. Supporters have argued that the bill will lead to an immediate increase in the number of draftees and bring thousands more haredim into the army. Critics, however, have countered that there is no guarantee that even with new sanctions, those who receive orders with the new law in place will actually respect them; and that there is no legal justification to enable 50% of haredim to continue being exempt from service, while secular and religious-Zionist Israelis do not enjoy the same privilege.
