{"id":164967,"date":"2025-12-02T23:45:12","date_gmt":"2025-12-02T23:45:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/164967\/"},"modified":"2025-12-02T23:45:12","modified_gmt":"2025-12-02T23:45:12","slug":"bennett-calls-haredi-draft-law-a-con-quotes-moses-saying-torah-students-must-fight-in-wars","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/164967\/","title":{"rendered":"Bennett calls Haredi draft law a con, quotes Moses saying Torah students must fight in wars"},"content":{"rendered":"

Former prime minister Naftali Bennett accused the government of \u201cadvancing a law that will eliminate any chance of drafting Haredim\u201d in a prerecorded video statement on Tuesday evening. It was broadcast minutes after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu cancelled a similar primetime address during which he was scheduled to have discussed his efforts to advance the controversial bill regulating ultra-Orthodox draft exemptions.<\/p>\n

Netanyahu\u2019s office said that the prime minister had delayed what was also expected to be a recorded statement due to unspecified \u201cscheduling constraints.\u201d Bennett and Opposition leader Yair Lapid had planned to issue their statements in response to Netanyahu\u2019s.<\/p>\n

Bennett, a former prime minister who is polling as Netanyahu\u2019s prime rival ahead of next year\u2019s general elections, lambasted the proposed law and accused Netanyahu of deceiving the public and abandoning those who shoulder the burden of military service. Yesh Atid leader Lapid, in his brief video statement, accused Netanyahu of running away from indefensible legislation, and betraying Israel\u2019s soldiers.<\/p>\n

According to Bennett, Israelis fought like \u201clions\u201d after October 7 with no regard to political or religious affiliation, and now that the war in Gaza is over, the IDF is facing a manpower shortage of 20,000 soldiers.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are only two options: to draft our Haredi brothers so that they shoulder their share, or to impose on our reservists another 120 reserve days every year on a permanent basis, destroying their professional and family future,\u201d Bennett said \u2014 claiming that there are currently \u201c100,000 young Haredi men obligated to enlist who can be trained within five months to the level required for the mission.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\u201cIt is possible, and the IDF is capable of it, but it needs government backing. Yet the government, instead of acting to draft the Haredim, is doing exactly the opposite! These days, it is advancing a law that will eliminate any chance of drafting Haredim,\u201d Bennett charged.<\/p>\n

For the past year, the Haredi leadership has been pushing for the passage of a law that would largely keep its constituency out of the IDF, after the High Court ruled that decades-long blanket exemptions from army duty informally afforded to full-time Haredi yeshiva students were illegal.<\/p>\n

\t\"\"<\/a>
\n\t\tUltra-Orthodox Jews protest outside the IDF recruitment center in Jerusalem on November 12, 2025 (Sam Sokol\/Times of Israel)<\/p>\n

Some 80,000 ultra-Orthodox men aged between 18 and 24 are currently believed to be eligible for military service, but have not enlisted. The IDF has said it urgently needs 12,000 recruits due to the strain on standing and reserve forces caused by the war against Hamas in Gaza and other military challenges.<\/p>\n

Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee chairman Boaz Bismuth (Likud) released his revised copy<\/a> of the government\u2019s conscription bill last Thursday, sparking widespread condemnation, including from within Netanyahu\u2019s own Likud party<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The legislation, as currently laid out, would continue to grant military service exemptions to full-time yeshiva students while ostensibly increasing conscription among graduates of Haredi educational institutions.<\/p>\n

However, the bill would also remove various provisions from an earlier draft by Likud MK Yuli Edelstein \u2014 who was recently deposed as chairman of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee \u2014 that were intended to ensure that those registered for yeshiva study are actually studying, and cancel all sanctions on draft evaders when they turn 26.<\/p>\n

According to Bennett, the bill currently being promoted by the coalition is \u201cnot a draft law\u201d but rather a bluff, \u201cfull of formulations and tricks meant to mislead you, the public, into thinking the goal is to draft Haredim, but in practice every component of the law ensures they will not enlist.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\"\"<\/a>
\n\t\tLikud MK Boaz Bismuth chairs a meeting of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, December 2, 2025. (Sam Sokol\/Times of Israel)<\/p>\n

\u201cFor example, the law grants an immediate pardon to all draft evaders: a reward for evasion. It also states that a young Haredi who delays until age 26 will receive a lifetime exemption. Obviously, everyone will do that,\u201d he stated.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe law is full of such deceptions. That is why the IDF opposes it. That is why former defense minister Yoav Gallant opposed it and was fired<\/a>. That is why the chair of the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, Yuli Edelstein, opposed it<\/a> and was removed. Every professional body that examined the law determined it is a bluff.\u201d<\/p>\n

The only reason why Netanyahu is promoting the controversial legislation is that \u201cthe Haredi parties are threatening to topple the coalition,\u201d Bennett argued, calling it \u201cpolitics in its purest form.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pushing back on the Haredi claim that Torah study cannot be combined with military service, Bennett cited the Biblical passage in which Moses rebukes the tribes of Gad and Reuben by asking, \u201cShall your brothers go out to war while you sit here?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAll the heroes of the Torah were warriors \u2014 Joshua bin Nun, Gideon, King David \u2014 all were great fighters! Myriads of soldiers from the religious Zionist community proved themselves in this war in all their glory, with a Gemara in hand in the heart of Khan Yunis! This is the true Judaism,\u201d he continued, calling on \u201cevery citizen of Israel to stand together with the soldiers of the IDF against this anti-Zionist law.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018Bibi ran away\u2019<\/p>\n

In his address, Lapid accused Netanyahu of cancelling his appearance and hiding from the public because he knows there is no justification for his policy.<\/p>\n

\t\"\"<\/a>
\n\t\tOpposition Leader Yair Lapid delivers a statement accusing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of being unable to defend his Haredi conscription bill, on December 2, 2025. (Screenshot)<\/p>\n

\u201cNetanyahu canceled his statement this evening because he knows the truth. Bibi ran away because he knows that we know the details of the draft evasion law, and he has no way to defend it,\u201d Lapid declared, arguing that \u201cnot even five percent\u201d of Haredim will enlist under the bill.<\/p>\n

According to Lapid, the controversial legislation \u201cis full of loopholes that were intentionally inserted into it\u201d and lacks enlistment quotas, sanctions and enforcement mechanisms and instead constitutes \u201cyet another betrayal of our soldiers.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cControl is not in the hands of the IDF, but in the hands of Deri and Goldknopf,\u201d he asserted, naming the leaders of the Knesset\u2019s two ultra-Orthodox parties, Aryeh Deri and Yitzhak Goldknopf. \u201cWhen choosing between the soldiers and the draft dodgers, Netanyahu chose the draft dodgers and betrayed the soldiers.\u201d<\/p>\n

The \u201csole purpose\u201d of the \u201cfull-on draft-dodging law\u201d is to \u201crenew the flow of money to the yeshivas,\u201d allocating billions of shekels annually to evaders and \u201cdisgracing our soldiers,\u201d Lapid continued.<\/p>\n

\u201cNetanyahu\u2019s escape tonight is a clear message to all coalition members: you cannot defend this law, and this law will not pass. I promise we will stop it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\"\"<\/a>
\n\t\tPrime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks at the weekly cabinet meeting in Jerusalem, November 16, 2025. (Screenshot\/GPO)<\/p>\n

\u2018A betrayal\u2019<\/p>\n

Netanyahu also came under fire from former IDF chief of staff and \u201cYashar! With Eisenkot\u201d chairman Gadi Eisenkot, who argued that cancelling his television appearance would \u201cnot change the essence of the draft evasion law,\u201d which constitutes \u201ca betrayal\u201d of the troops.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis law harms the IDF\u2019s readiness. Failing to meet the army\u2019s need for 12,000 combat soldiers in the midst of a war is not a mistake \u2014 it\u2019s negligence,\u201d he tweeted, accusing the prime minister of \u201cconsciously choosing his personal and coalition survival over national security and over the lives of the soldiers.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNetanyahu, if you truly believe this is a good law, let\u2019s bring it to snap elections. You and the October 7 government of failure don\u2019t have a shred of moral authority or legitimacy to legislate this disgrace,\u201d Eisenkot declared.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former prime minister Naftali Bennett accused the government of \u201cadvancing a law that will eliminate any chance of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":164968,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":{"0":"post-164967","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/164967","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=164967"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/164967\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/164968"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=164967"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=164967"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=164967"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}