Two days after Degel HaTorah decided to push for early elections and declare that it was no longer part of the right-wing bloc, the Haredi parties appear to have more questions than answers about their political future.
The crisis over the military draft law comes nearly two years after the High Court of Justice ordered the defense establishment to issue draft notices to all young Haredi men in the absence of legislation regulating their status, and later to deny them certain financial benefits.
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Aryeh Deri, chairman of Shas, Moshe Gafni, chairman of Degel HaTorah, Yitzhak Goldknopf, chairman of Agudat Yisrae
(Photo: Alex Kolomoisky, Yoav Dudkevitch, Amit Shabi)
Throughout the current government’s term, the Haredi parties have repeatedly threatened to dissolve the Knesset. In practice, however, they ultimately kept the coalition alive in every key vote. The reason is fairly clear: outside the bloc led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, no one is currently waiting for them with open arms.
The Zionist opposition parties have taken a far more aggressive line on Haredi enlistment than even opponents of the exemption bill in Likud and Religious Zionism. Beyond that, the Haredi parties have traveled a long political road with Netanyahu.
In the previous election, Shas branded itself as an inseparable part of Netanyahu’s loyal camp, with campaign posters declaring, “Bibi needs a strong Aryeh,” referring to party chairman Aryeh Deri.
On the other side, the Gerer rebbe, who decided to break away from Netanyahu under any circumstances, led his representative, Agudat Yisrael chairman Yitzhak Goldknopf, to quit the government in June last year and join the opposition.
It is difficult to know what the Haredi parties will do next — and that uncertainty is likely what kept them supporting Netanyahu’s coalition while continuing to benefit from its budgets. Now, with elections for the 26th Knesset approaching, Agudat Yisrael, the Hasidic faction within United Torah Judaism, is already signaling openness to a government with today’s opposition.
Senior party officials say that after the election, they would be willing to negotiate with Naftali Bennett, Yair Lapid and Avigdor Liberman to see what they have to offer.
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Opposition leaders: Yair Lapid, Naftali Bennett, Avigdor Liberman, Gadi Eisenkot and Yair Golan
(Photo: Shalev Shalom, Yair Sagi, Yuval Chen, Alex Kolomoisky)
Lapid has already said he will not grant the Haredi public an exemption from military service. Bennett, too, has made universal enlistment a central campaign message. Still, Agudat Yisrael is counting on the possibility that parties in the opposing bloc may be willing to trade Netanyahu’s removal for concessions to the Haredim, noting that Bennett once sat in a coalition with Ra’am chairman Mansour Abbas despite campaign promises suggesting otherwise.
Degel HaTorah, led by MK Moshe Gafni, is focusing on opposition to Netanyahu but is not speaking explicitly about negotiations with the other side.
As for Shas, the party’s newspaper Haderech wrote in its subheadline that “great shock” had been felt in the Haredi community after Netanyahu announced he did not intend to advance legislation regulating the status of yeshiva students during the current summer session.
“This is a violation of all the promises and agreements signed with the consent of all coalition components,” the paper said.
At the same time, it cited Deri’s pledge that without a draft law, Shas would not enter the next government.
Shas spokesman Asher Medina published a column warning against relying on a government led by the current opposition.
“Anyone who thinks a left-wing government will give us everything is living in fantasy,” he wrote. “The only common denominator among that collection of figures is hatred of Haredim.”
According to Medina, once such a government consolidated power, “they will launch an unprecedented campaign of revenge and cleansing, aimed at returning the centers of power to their hands. Then they will turn to deal with those they hate most: the Haredim.”
“An enormous and cruel ax will be raised over this public, compared with which today’s decrees will seem like a walk in the park,” he wrote. “The draft law under discussion will be thrown into the trash, and in its place will come a clear ruling: enlistment for everyone. The complete dismantling of the Torah world.”
Meanwhile, Degel HaTorah is also opposing the use of legislative continuity from the current Knesset to the next one, a move that would allow discussions to continue in the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee on a draft bill that has already passed its first reading.
“We are sick of empty maneuvers meant to buy time and distract attention, when in the end they will claim there is no majority,” Degel HaTorah said.
“We informed the coalition leadership that we oppose amending the continuity law, and according to the instruction of the generation’s leading rabbi, we are working to dissolve the Knesset as soon as possible.”