\u201cThis is not an expenditure. It\u2019s an investment,\u201d said Smotrich in a joint video statement with Netanyahu. \u201cTo succeed in this mission, we\u2019re putting aside contentious issues that aren\u2019t fitting in wartime.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re putting aside the enlistment law, which won\u2019t be promoted for now, as well as a number of reforms that have not gained wide support,\u201d said Smotrich, whose plan to expand dairy imports was removed<\/a> from legislation accompanying the budget on Tuesday amid opposition from Netanyahu\u2019s Likud party.<\/p>\n \u201cWe wanted to bring more good news to the citizens of Israel in this budget, with an emphasis on the struggle against the cost of living,\u201d he said. \u201cBut the responsibility resting on our shoulders requires us to focus on passing the budget immediately for the security of the state and the welfare of its residents.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\t\t\tGet The Times of Israel’s Daily Edition \t\t\t\tBy signing up, you agree to the terms<\/a><\/p>\n Netanyahu, in his remarks, hailed Israel\u2019s accomplishments in the ongoing bombing campaign that the United States and Israel launched against Iran on February 28 in a bid to topple its clerical regime and destroy its nuclear and ballistic missile capabilities.<\/p>\n \u201cThere was no question \u2014 we had to go to war,\u201d said Netanyahu. \u201cBut \u2014 and there\u2019s a big but \u2014 it all costs money. A lot of money.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s why we need a special budget\u201d with \u201ctens of billions of shekels to help the defense budget in the war effort,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \t The state budget passed its first reading in January with partial Haredi support, and needs to pass its second and third readings by March 31 or the government will fall, with a new election automatically called.<\/p>\n Multiple Hebrew reports amid the ongoing war with Iran have indicated that two of the Knesset\u2019s three Haredi factions would likely support<\/a> the state budget, despite the government\u2019s failure to codify ultra-Orthodox yeshiva students\u2019 exemption from the draft. Netanyahu also told<\/a> the pro-government outlet Channel 14 last week that the budget would pass before the enlistment law.<\/p>\n Hours before the statement by Smotrich and Netanyahu, the government on Tuesday authorized<\/a> over NIS 5 billion ($1.6 billion) in discretionary funds for Haredi institutions, West Bank settlements and other party priorities in the 2026 state budget, drawing harsh condemnations<\/a> from the opposition.<\/p>\n Nonetheless, opposition leaders cheered the announcement Tuesday evening that the government was deferring the legislation on Haredi military service.<\/p>\n \u201cFor many months, we thwarted every possibility of advancing the law in the Knesset,\u201d wrote Opposition Leader Yair Lapid on X. \u201cTonight, Netanyahu and Smotrich admitted what we have long said: the despicable law has failed.\u201d<\/p>\n \t Former prime minister Naftali Bennett, the leading candidate to replace Netanyahu, wrote: \u201cWe won; we won big.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe people of Israel: one. The Netanyahu government and the Haredim: zero,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n \u201cAfter two years of determined struggle by the reservist organizations, by the entire people of Israel, against the law that I defined as \u2018the most anti-Zionist law in the history of Israel,\u2019 we won,\u201d Bennett continued. \u201cToday, everyone understands that everyone must serve together. One service for one nation.\u201d<\/p>\n \t Likud MK Yuli Edelstein, whose party booted him from the helm of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee last year after he demanded legislation that penalized Hared draft dodgers, said the announcement by Smotrich and Netanyahu was a \u201chuge step on the way to vanquishing the draft evasion law.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cTogether, we\u2019ll keep striving to widen the IDF\u2019s recruitment base until we pass a real, historic enlistment law that will truly answer to the needs of the military, and lighten the burden on people who show up to serve time after time,\u201d said Edelstein.<\/p>\n Ultra-Orthodox parties have demanded a law to keep their constituencies out of the military after the High Court in June 2024 ruled that there was no legal basis for the Haredi yeshiva students\u2019 decades-long blanket exemption from the draft.<\/p>\n \t The current version of the bill would ostensibly increase military conscription in the Haredi community, but ultimately enshrines continued exemptions for full-time yeshiva students.<\/p>\n The bill has come under fire from\u00a0IDF brass<\/a>, the\u00a0attorney general<\/a>, and a wide array of\u00a0other critics<\/a>, who have objected to it on the grounds that it is\u00a0full of loopholes<\/a>, preserves inequality in the mandatory draft, and will not increase Haredi enlistment amid what the military says is a manpower shortage.<\/p>\n Since the war in Gaza was sparked by the Hamas-led onslaught of October 7, 2023, the military has repeatedly told lawmakers that it lacks 12,000 troops due to the strain of the conflict and other military challenges.<\/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.<\/p>\n
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\n\t\tInterceptor missiles are fired at Iranian ballistic missiles over central Israel, March 9, 2026. (Yossi Aloni\/Flash90)<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/F250929OBH114.jpg\")
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\n\t\tUTJ MKs Yitzhak Goldknopf and Moshe Gafni at the Knesset plenum, Jerusalem, September 29, 2025. (Oren Ben Hakoon\/ Flash90)<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/F240226YS29-e1711524403568.jpg\")
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\n\t\tProtesters against Haredi draft evasion stand outside the High Court in Jerusalem on February 26, 2024. (Yonatan Sindel\/Flash90)<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/F260111CG302-e1773177431109.jpg\")
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\n\t\tHaredi men protest against the military draft in Jerusalem, January 11, 2026. (Chaim Goldberg\/Flash90)<\/p>\n
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