United Torah Judaism set an ultimatum today (Monday) to the Likud party, stating that the day care law must be prioritized first, and only then will the other laws be brought forward. And no – they will not vote together with the government, so reported Amit Segal.
Last week it was reported that after the ultra-Orthodox parties issued an ultimatum to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, stating that they would not participate in the votes and would block the budget if the conscription law was not passed beforehand – they backed down and retracted.
Indeed, this is not a complete capitulation since they conditioned it on the fact that if a solution for subsidizing day care centres is found, the budget will pass even without the conscription law. But as expected, this concession will likely be followed by more concessions, because even they know that they have nothing to look for outside right now.
In the Ministerial Committee for Legislation that convened at that time, the ultra-Orthodox representatives fulfilled their threat of sanctions that they decided to impose on the coalition and did not participate in the votes. Goldknopf also voted against MK Henoch Milvitzky's law to weaken the power of the Bar Association.
Following that, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich addressed the ultimatum and clarified that he would not postpone the vote: "Not going to happen," he wrote on his Twitter account.
Opinions among the Haredi public and within the representatives of the Haredi parties are divided on this matter. Some of the Knesset members, who are attuned to public criticism and the immense pressure being exerted on the public to participate and join the war effort, firmly argue that this is not the time to push for such a law that will only increase the division and hatred towards the Haredi sector.
"The call for enlistment – a desire to defame the Haredim"
On the other hand, there are Knesset members who argue that there is never a suitable time for this and believe that the calls for drafting the Haredi yeshiva students do not stem from a tangible need, but rather from a desire to defame the community and attack it regardless. According to them, there is no other suitable time, and therefore, the law should be pushed through now.
The Lithuanian leaders Rabbi Lando and Rabbi Hirsch adopted the approach that this is not the right time, and it was reported in Kikar Shabbat that they instructed the representatives not to threaten to withdraw from the coalition and not to halt the budget approval over the enlistment law. "This is not the time," they said.
So, although the ultra-Orthodox backed down from their stubborn ultimatum, they demanded at least tangible progress on the conscription law. And here, Knesset members from Likud appeared and decided to put an end to the matter. Defense Minister Yoav Galant, Chairman of the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee Yuli Edelstein, and other coalition MKs opposed it, and therefore there is no majority for the move.