\u201cThis is your policy,\u201d Bluth reportedly said, \u201cbut it requires security and a full protection package, because the reality on the ground has completely changed \u2014 and that requires manpower.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ministers were also shown footage of settler violence incidents during the meeting, according to Channel 12.<\/p>\n
Attacks by extremist settlers have spiked during the ongoing war with Iran. This week, the Israel Defense Forces\u00a0diverted<\/a> an infantry battalion that was intended to be deployed to Lebanon to the West Bank amid a spate of attacks by settlers against Palestinians. The military says even more troops may be needed to combat the attacks.<\/p>\n \t Opposition Leader Yair Lapid held a press conference after the Channel 13 report aired, blaming the government for \u201csending the army into a multi-front war without a strategy, without sufficient resources, and with too few soldiers.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThis time, the government will not be able to say, \u2018I didn\u2019t know.\u2019 This is the chief of staff they appointed, and they will not be able to politicize him and shift the blame onto him,\u201d Lapid added, saying that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will not be able to say, \u201cI am not responsible.\u201d<\/p>\n Lapid called on the government to do much more to draft ultra-Orthodox men, who have long enjoyed sweeping exemptions from military service that the government previously sough to enshrine into law.<\/p>\n He added that the government \u201cmust fight Jewish terrorism with every available means,\u201d and called on the government to \u201cstrip authority\u201d from far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, \u201cwho openly supports Jewish terrorists,\u201d and to \u201cdeploy all enforcement capabilities.\u201d<\/p>\n \t Former prime minister Naftali Bennett, seen as one of Netanyahu\u2019s leading competitors in this year\u2019s election, also called on the government to draft the ultra-Orthodox during an interview on Channel 12, saying that Israel\u2019s leadership was \u201cpreventing the IDF from winning.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe IDF is 20,000 soldiers short,\u201d he said. \u201cThere are 100,000 young Haredim of military age in good health today, and if they only recruited a fifth of them, there would be no problem.\u201d<\/p>\n Gadi Eisenkot, a former IDF chief of staff who is also running against Netanyahu, addressed the government, writing on X, \u201cYou won\u2019t be able to say again that you didn\u2019t know. The chief of staff is \u2018raising ten red flags,\u2019 the reservists and their families are crying out, and the government of Israel ignores them and continues to encourage draft exemption.\u201d<\/p>\n \t The leader of the Democrats Party, Yair Golan, said the government was \u201cspitting in the face of the reservists\u201d and \u201cthrowing them under the bus while rewarding draft dodging.\u201d<\/p>\n MK Benny Gantz, leader of the Blue and White party and another former IDF chief, called Zamir\u2019s warning a \u201cserious indictment against the government at a time of war.\u201d<\/p>\n In a statement reported by Hebrew media, Netanyahu\u2019s office claimed that opposition politicians distorted Zamir\u2019s remarks.<\/p>\n The Prime Minister\u2019s Office said that Zamir had called for the passage of laws regulating the draft, reserve duty and extending mandatory military service. Netanyahu\u2019s office claimed that it is working to pass those laws but is being stymied by legal advisers.<\/p>\n The IDF brass however has not backed the government\u2019s draft exemption law, with a senior military officer saying in December that it fell short of solving the military\u2019s manpower shortage. After the start of the Iran war, Netanyahu and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said<\/a> the bill would be set aside.<\/p>\n Some ruling Likud party lawmakers echoed Zamir\u2019s reported warning. MK Dan Illouz, who opposed<\/a> the Haredi draft exemption bill, wrote on X that \u201cBeing right-wing means, first and foremost, security.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cYou can\u2019t demand annexation, settlement and total victory, and then let the IDF collapse due to lack of soldiers,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n MK Eli Dallal, also of the Likud, called on X for the government to enforce its laws and recruit ultra-Orthodox men, writing that this was the only way to keep the IDF\u2019s manpower problem from deteriorating further.<\/p>\n \t Other Likud lawmakers instead turned their ire at Zamir.<\/p>\n Sources close to Likud Boaz Bismuth, the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee chair and architect of the draft exemption bill, called Zamir\u2019s comments \u201cirresponsible\u201d and \u201cunprecedented,\u201d saying they \u201cdirectly harm the war effort,\u201d and constituted \u201cdangerous behavior,\u201d according to Hebrew media reports.<\/p>\n Likud MK Tally Gotliv labeled Zamir\u2019s reported comments \u201cdefeatism\u201d which \u201cstrengthens our enemies.\u201d<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/F260323YS34-640x400.jpg\")
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\n\t\tOpposition Leader and head of the Yesh Atid party MK Yair Lapid leads a faction meeting at the Knesset, the Israeli parliament, in Jerusalem, on March 23, 2026. (Yonatan Sindel\/Flash90)<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/F260217YS150-640x400.jpg\")
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\n\t\tFormer prime minister Naftali Bennett speaks at the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations in Jerusalem, on February 17, 2026. (Yonatan Sindel\/Flash90)<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/F260106AVS0017-640x400.jpg\")
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\n\t\tGadi Eisenkot attends a conference at the Academic College in Tel Aviv, January 6, 2026. (Avshalom Sassoni\/Flash90)<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/F260224YS05-640x400.jpg\")
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\n\t\tMK Boaz Bismuth leads a Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee meeting at the Knesset, the Israeli Parliament in Jerusalem, February 24, 2026. (Yonatan Sindel\/Flash90)<\/p>\n
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