- Hanegbi says legislation ‘enables evasion’; head of NGO supporting Haredi soldiers calls for major changes, says bill lacks structured plan for integration
Former national security adviser Tzachi Hanegbi on Friday sharply criticized Likud MK Boaz Bismuth’s proposed law to regulate ultra-Orthodox conscription, warning that the bill “enables evasion” and threatens Israel’s future.
The revised version of the bill, unveiled Thursday, would continue to grant military service exemptions to full-time yeshiva students while ostensibly increasing conscription among graduates of Haredi educational institutions.
It is widely seen as calibrated to maintain the current status quo, under which the overwhelming majority of ultra-Orthodox men do not perform IDF service.
In a Facebook post, Hanegbi, a longtime confidant of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, said Bismuth’s proposal “does not advance” the IDF’s urgent need for thousands of additional combat soldiers following the war.
He wrote that the military burden “still falls on the shoulders of a relatively small few,” noting that all four of his sons served in combat roles, with three recently fighting in Gaza.
He argued that while Torah study is a cherished value, “it must be combined with the value of defending the state and its citizens.”
The longtime Likud minister was abruptly removed from his post last month, reportedly amid disagreements with Netanyahu over Gaza war policy, after years as one of the premier’s key advisers.
Hanegbi added that his experience in the cabinet, the Knesset’s Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee and the National Security Council convinced him that the IDF “knows how to successfully integrate” military service with religious commitments.
He called on the government and Knesset to “ensure this without further delay.”
Netanyahu, who has been seeking to advance the legislation to satisfy the ultra-Orthodox parties’ demands but is also wary of alienating other supporters, has not publicly commented on the revised text.
Meanwhile, the head of an organization supporting ultra-Orthodox soldiers urged Bismuth to implement significant changes to the bill, highlighting its failure to recognize Haredi hesder yeshivas.
Yossi Levi’s Netzah Yehuda NGO supports the Netzah Yehuda Battalion, established more than 25 years ago to enable Haredi men to serve as combat soldiers. Hesder yeshivas, primarily attended by young men from the religious Zionist community, combine Torah study with shortened military service.
In a letter to Bismuth, Levi called for a balanced framework that addresses Israel’s security needs while respecting the Haredi way of life. He criticized the current bill for lacking a structured plan for integrating Haredim into the IDF, describing it as largely declarative and difficult to implement.
The NGO’s proposed amendments include binding recruitment targets, with at least 30 percent of Haredi recruits assigned to combat units, civil security service beginning only at age 22, and adaptations within the IDF, including a dedicated Haredi platoon, a separate recruitment office and formal spiritual guidance.
Levi also emphasized the need for an official government plan for Haredi conscription, modeled on the proven programs used to integrate Haredim into civilian employment.
For the past year, the Haredi leadership has pushed to pass a law largely keeping its constituency out of the Israel Defense Forces, after the High Court ruled that decades-long blanket exemptions from army duty traditionally afforded to full-time Haredi yeshiva students were illegal.
Some 80,000 ultra-Orthodox men aged between 18 and 24 are currently believed to be eligible for military service, but have not enlisted. The IDF has said it urgently needs 12,000 recruits due to the strain on standing and reserve forces caused by the war against Hamas in Gaza and other military challenges.
BY: The Times Union
