Haredi draft

Religious Zionist Party, led by Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, slid under the threshold with 2.8% support, as public divisions over the IDF draft framework and the state budget grew. 

This week on The Deep Dive, Jacob Laznik breaks down the deadlock over Israel’s Haredi draft bill with Keshet Neev, MK Moshe ‘Kinley’ Turpaz, and MK Dan Illouz.

Legal expert Shlomit Ravitsky Tur-Paz warns that Israel’s draft bill for the Haredi community may entrench societal divisions and worsen long-term challenges for the economy and military.

A month of reservist service costs about NIS 38,000 ($11,700), while conscripting young Haredim is far cheaper and may even encourage them to join the workforce.

“I couldn’t just sit there and continue to argue and see they’re not changing their minds,” Haskel told the Post about the marathon discussions on the bill taking place in the Knesset.

Israel's Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara said the current version of the haredi draft law would benefit only ultra-Orthodox men.

Approximately 1 million eligible voters in Israel are immigrants from the former Soviet Union, part of a wider Russian-speaking community that comprises roughly 15% of the population.

The demographic potential of Muslim Arab men aged 18 stands at over 12,500 young men per year – a figure equivalent to the enlistment potential of haredi men.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu assured that “the investigation committee will be equal between the coalition and the opposition."

Additionally, former prime minister Naftali Bennett said if elected, he would cancel the government's haredi IDF exemption bill.

Bennett addressed the current attempt by the government to pass a law which critics say will only moderately increase haredi service in the IDF, at the Cyber Week conference at Tel Aviv University.