Senior Charedi officials stated on Thursday that Charedi political leaders are beginning to understand that it will not be feasible to pass a conscription bill as specified in the coalition agreement in light of the widespread public protests against the judicial reform.
Defense Minister Yoav Gallant met with prominent charedi party members, according to Kikar Hashabbat, and explained to them that the division in Israeli society prohibits the promotion of a law in line with charedi demands.
Gallant underlined the cautions of senior General Staff and IDF Personnel Directorate officials that secular parents would choose not to enlist their children in the military if the government passed a conscription bill in the vein of the current proposal.
We listened to Galant; even though we disagreed, we saw that there was an issue. Gallant does not act in a hostile manner toward the haredim, unlike [Yisrael Beytenu chair MK Avigdor] Liberman, a haredi official was quoted as saying.
Current signs point to the Charedi parties moving forward with a law based on the general framework established in the coalition agreements in the Netanyahu-Gantz unity government.
Along with goals for haredim entering the workforce, the proposed law would also include sanctions for the economy and recruitment targets.
This would be very different from the law being negotiated by the current coalition, which would have contained a fundamental law on the significance of Torah study and exemption from service at a younger age than is already accepted, as well as offering a number of other provisions that are not currently included.
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