Shas leader Aryeh Deri issued a public ultimatum to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu today (Tuesday) during a Kol Baramah radio interview, saying that Netanyahu has two months to legalize the status of draft-eligible Torah scholars and if he doesn't do it - the government will collapse.
During the interview, Deri said that "there are two months to regulate the status of the Torah students, if it is not regulated - we will go to elections."
Deri is thus joining with other Haredi parties in threatening to not vote for the coalition's budget without a Draft Law - a move which would immediately trigger early elections.
The government has been trying to resolve the matter of the draft for Haredim since it came into office two years ago, but the fight over judicial reform and the October 7 put it on the back burner.
When the Supreme Court struck down the exemptions granted to Torah students in the absence of an approved Draft Law, the government started to work hard to find a solution, but it has been internally divided on what such a law would look like.
While Haredi parties and some in Likud want a law that exempts as many as possible from the draft, others in Likud such as former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and current Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee Chairman MK Yuli Edelstein refuse to approve a law which does not draft large numbers of soldiers in combat and combat support positions, not civilian volunteer roles.
Defense Minister Israel Katz presented his parameters for a proposed draft law, which would include the eventual drafting of 50% of every Haredi cohort within seven years, with the first year drafting 4,800 soldiers, then 5,700 soldiers the year after that. He also said that any attempt to force a draft without the consent of the Haredi community and spiritual leaders would fail.
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