Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee Chair MK Boaz Bismuth announced Thursday that he has drafted core principles for a new military conscription law aimed at granting exemptions to ultra-Orthodox yeshiva students—an effort widely viewed as a step toward bringing the Shas party back into Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s governing coalition.
Bismuth offered no specifics on the proposed framework, which is meant to defuse months of political turmoil over ultra-Orthodox enlistment in the IDF—a flashpoint that has long strained ties between Netanyahu’s government and Israel’s secular and military institutions.
Officials from Shas, which left the government in July amid disputes over the draft issue, were reportedly unimpressed by the preliminary document. Party representatives said they were waiting to review a full draft bill before making any decisions about rejoining the coalition.
“The committee’s legal adviser has received a summary document that includes all the comments, additions and corrections raised following intensive work and in-depth discussions,” Bismuth said. “Based on this document, a draft law will be formulated in the coming days to guide the committee.”
According to sources who spoke with ynet, the document builds on understandings reached prior to the war against Iran in June, with additional changes emerging in talks between Bismuth and representatives of ultra-Orthodox parties. Committee legal adviser Miri Frenkel reportedly said she would need about two weeks to turn the understandings into a legal draft. A committee discussion on the draft law is scheduled for Tuesday.
Coalition officials are pushing to advance the legislation to create political conditions for the ultra-Orthodox parties — particularly Shas — to return to government. Party sources said they may rejoin the coalition as soon as the text is finalized or the understandings are submitted.
Shas chairman Aryeh Deri is said to be eager to return to the government before temporary appointments for previously Shas-controlled ministries take effect next week, on Monday for the Labor and Welfare Ministry and Wednesday for the Interior Ministry. Coalition sources expressed hope that submitting the draft to the committee’s legal adviser could enable Deri’s return even if the ministries remain without appointed ministers for several days.
If Shas does not return to the coalition, Netanyahu will need to appoint permanent ministers to those portfolios. Under Israeli law, a minister may not hold more than two portfolios, meaning the reshuffle could complicate the division of Cabinet roles. Even so, sources said that if Shas rejoins the government later, its ministers would likely regain control of their ministries.
A potential obstacle remains the stance of United Torah Judaism, the Ashkenazi ultra-Orthodox faction. Some of its lawmakers may refuse to rejoin the coalition until the draft law is formally passed — a process that could take weeks or longer. The question now rests on whether Shas would agree to return to government without its Ashkenazi peers.
In a statement, Bismuth thanked Netanyahu “for his full backing throughout the process,” as well as former minister Ariel Atias of Shas, defense officials and representatives of reservist lobbying groups “who bring the spirit of the field to our discussions.”
“I am proud of a process that has brought together many parties around a shared goal,” Bismuth said. “We are moving toward approving a historic law, a necessary and inevitable step for Israel’s security and future.”
But reservist organizations quickly pushed back, accusing Bismuth of misleading the public about their involvement. “MK Bismuth’s claim that reservists were involved in drafting the document submitted to the committee’s legal adviser is false and detached from reality," reservist advocacy group Shoulder to Shoulder said.
"The document was written in the shadows in coordination with the ultra-Orthodox parties, without consultation or involvement of reservists. This is a troubling sign that Bismuth has caved to pressure to advance a draft evasion law that discriminates between one kind of blood and another.”
The newly formed Reservists Party, led by former communications minister Yoaz Hendel and set to run in next year’s elections, slammed the proposal, saying it fails to meet Israel’s security needs in the wake of the war. “We will not allow a draft evasion law to pass. We will not be silenced. Even if the government declares the war over, Israel’s security needs require a large army. We must not return to the complacency of October 6," the party said.
"One cannot thank reservists while simultaneously encouraging draft dodging. Anyone who refuses to serve should not be eligible to vote for or be elected to the Knesset. No one should dictate to us how we risk our lives.”
The draft law debate has become one of the most contentious political issues in Israel since the outbreak of the war with Hamas on Oct. 7, 2023, which led to mass mobilization of reservists and renewed public demands for equal service obligations across Israeli society.