Netanyahu’s coalition rattled as ultra-Orthodox party exits over conscription bill

Tel Aviv: An Israeli ultra-Orthodox party that has been a key governing partner of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said it was leaving the coalition government, threatening to destabilise the Israeli leader’s rule at a pivotal time in the war in Gaza.

United Torah Judaism’s two factions said they were quitting the government due to a long-running dispute over a failure to draft a bill to exempt ultra-Orthodox Jewish seminary students from military service. The issue has long divided Jewish Israelis, most of whom are required to enlist, a rift that has only widened since the war in Gaza began and demands on military manpower grew.

If the exit goes ahead, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will be left with a razor-thin majority in parliament.Credit: Bloomberg

The departure of a party that has long served as a kingmaker in Israeli politics doesn’t immediately threaten Netanyahu’s rule.

But, once it comes into effect within 48 hours, it will leave the Israeli leader with a razor-thin majority in a government that could now more heavily rely on the whims of two far-right parties. Those parties oppose concessions in ceasefire negotiations with Hamas and have themselves quit or threatened to quit the government over moves to end or even pause the war in Gaza.

The political shake-up comes as Israel and Hamas are discussing the terms of a truce for the 21-month war in Gaza. Despite heavy pressure from the United States, Israel’s top ally, and mediators Egypt and Qatar, there is no breakthrough yet in the talks.

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An Israeli Defence Ministry proposal to force hundreds of thousands of Palestinians into a small and largely devastated zone controlled by its military in southern Gaza threatens to derail the latest efforts to forge a truce, The New York Times has reported. A spokesperson for Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz, who the Times says first floated the idea last week, declined to comment on the reports, as did Netanyahu’s office.

Another recurring sticking point has been whether the war ends as part of any truce, and Netanyahu’s far-right parties oppose ending the war while Hamas remains intact.

United Torah Judaism’s departure has a window of 48 hours before becoming official, meaning Netanyahu can still find ways to satisfy the party and bring it back into the coalition. But Shuki Friedman, vice president of the Jewish People Policy Institute, said the gaps between the draft law currently on the table and the demands of the party were still wide, making a compromise unlikely during that time.

Friedman said the party’s departure did not immediately put Netanyahu’s rule at risk. A vote to dissolve parliament can’t be brought by the opposition until the end of the year because of procedural reasons. And a summer recess for parliament, beginning later this month and stretching until October, gives Netanyahu another attempt to bridge the gaps and bring the party back into the coalition.

Cabinet minister Miki Zohar, from Netanyahu’s Likud party, said he was hopeful the party could be coaxed back to the coalition. “God willing, everything will be fine,” he said.

The ultra-Orthodox have long been exempt from military service, which applies to most other young Israelis. But the Supreme Court last year ordered the Defence Ministry to end that practice and start conscripting seminary students.

Netanyahu had been pushing hard to resolve a deadlock in his coalition over a new military conscription bill, which has led to the present crisis. Ultra-Orthodox parties have argued that a bill to exempt yeshiva students was a key promise in their agreement to join the coalition in late 2022.

The exemption, which over the years has spared an increasingly large number of people, has become a heated topic in Israel, with the military still embroiled in a war in Gaza.

AP, Reuters

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