It had naively been expected that this would be the end of the matter \u2014 since opposition consent was believed to be required even to convene another committee session on the same matter. But the coalition scheduled a second session nonetheless, ignoring opposition objections and a failed petition to the High Court, and on Tuesday it bulldozed through<\/a> a similar package of extra Haredi \u201ceducational\u201d funding that also included money for a so-called Yeshiva Committee<\/a> that has encouraged ultra-Orthodox draft evasion.<\/p>\n Israel\u2019s education system is in crisis. It ranks 31st among 36 participating OECD countries in the latest PISA tests (the Program for International Student Assessment, which assesses 15-year-old students\u2019 reading, mathematics, and science abilities).<\/p>\n \t And that appalling standing does not fully reflect Israel\u2019s dismal reality.<\/p>\n \n\t\t\tGet The Times of Israel’s Daily Edition \t\t\t\tBy signing up, you agree to the terms<\/a><\/p>\n The vast majority of ultra-Orthodox boys, from their early teens onward, do not study a core curriculum \u2014 indeed study no secular subjects at all. Naturally, they do not take the PISA tests. Were they to do so, the true status of Israeli education would be revealed in all its gravity.<\/p>\n \t Not all young ultra-Orthodox men insistently reject worldly education. But those who apply for higher education programs, get accepted and begin such studies drop out at disproportionately high rates, according to data prepared by academic economist Prof. Dan Ben-David, because they have been deprived during their earlier miseducation of the basic tools to give them a realistic chance of success.<\/p>\n All of this renders the men of the fastest-growing community in Israel either unwilling to enter Israel\u2019s hitherto first-class workforce (choosing to stay in yeshiva) or incapable of doing so (because of miseducation) \u2014 exacerbating the decline in the prowess of the Israeli labor pool, with genuinely existential consequences. \u201cThere won\u2019t be a third-world Israel,\u201d warns Ben-David. In the \u201cspiral of collapse\u201d that Israel has already entered, he says, an increasingly inadequate education system will inevitably be unable to maintain a first-class economy, a first-class health system, or a first-class army. And a weakened army won\u2019t be capable of protecting the state.<\/p>\n \t Netanyahu knows this, knows it deep down. He recognizes the dangers to Israel\u2019s current and future capacity to survive and thrive posed by the exponential growth of an ultra-Orthodox community that is being deprived of an adequate education, refuses to serve in the army, and lacks the tools to productively enter the workforce even if it wanted to.<\/p>\n As finance minister back in 2003-5, with Israel facing recession and needing to cut public spending and revitalize the economy after the suicide-bomber battering of the Second Intifada, Netanyahu slashed child allowances \u2014 abandoning a system that offered increasing subsidies to large families (triggering an immediate fall in the ultra-Orthodox birthrate) \u2014 and stopped an array of other welfare payments and income supplements, to compel wider participation in the workforce.<\/p>\n \t But as prime minister for most of Israel\u2019s recent lifespan, dependent on ultra-Orthodox political support, he reversed course.<\/p>\n \t The ultra-Orthodox were less than 9% of the Israeli populace 20 years ago. Today, they\u2019re over 14%. By 2040, they are projected by the Central Bureau of Statistics to be<\/a> 20%, and 32% in 2065.<\/p>\n They\u2019re not being properly educated. And as Tuesday\u2019s additional, probably illegal bonus for their \u201cschools\u201d underlined, the outgoing coalition is doing everything in its power to exacerbate the crisis. (Unsurprisingly, the High Court on Wednesday froze<\/a> what might reasonably be described as these attempted pre-election bribes, as the coalition surely knew would happen \u2014 bolstering solidarity in the far-right\/right\/ultra-Orthodox coalition bloc against the loathed High Court.)<\/p>\n \t Two years ago, 130 of Israel\u2019s leading economists published an open letter<\/a> warning that \u201cthe combination of the policies of Israel\u2019s governments over time and the high growth rate of the Haredi population is leading the country towards an abyss, one that poses a very real and very grave threat to Israel\u2019s economy and society, including to the Haredi community itself.\u201d<\/p>\n Today, these experts noted, \u201c22% of all children under working age (0-14 years old) are Haredim. By 2065, this share is expected to be roughly 50%, more than doubling the Haredi share in just four decades. Without sweeping, profound, and rapid changes in government policy, the State of Israel will face existential danger.\u201d<\/p>\n \t \u201cWithout a change in the current trajectory,\u201d they continued, \u201cmany of those who bear the [economic and security] burden will prefer to emigrate from Israel. The first to leave will be those with opportunities abroad: physicians, engineers, high-tech workers, and scientists. Israel\u2019s remaining population will be less educated and less productive, thus increasing the burden on the remaining productive population. This, in turn, will encourage further emigration from Israel. This process of a \u2018spiral of collapse\u2019 in which increasingly larger groups decide to emigrate, will further deteriorate the conditions of those who remain\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n The warning went unheeded and, Ben-David notes, the stream of emigration, notably among the 300,000 or so Israelis who are central to Israel\u2019s economy and well-being, notably in the vaunted, vital tech sector, is in danger of becoming a flood.<\/p>\n \t Ben-David believes the situation is still salvageable. He has done the rounds of innumerable Israeli political leaders and key officials \u2014 Gadi Eisenkot, Naftali Bennett, Gideon Sa\u2019ar and many more \u2014 walking them through a presentation that ran to 73 largely horrifying charts when he showed it to me this week. (I\u2019ve peppered this article with several of them.) And he\u2019s met in the past with Netanyahu, with Shas leader Aryeh Deri and multiple other ultra-Orthodox leaders.<\/p>\n Bennett, in particular, gives every sign of being persuaded of the crisis, and has lately advocated that Haredi schools that do not teach a core curriculum, and other essential subjects such as civics besides, simply not be allowed any state funding, and that Haredim unwilling to perform national service or enter the workforce get no government allowances or subsidies.<\/p>\n \u201cWe will not fund an independent [Haredi] state,\u201d Bennett told The Times of Israel<\/a> in June. \u201cWe, I will not fund a school that does not teach all of the core curriculum \u2014 not only math and English, which I used to think is the main thing, but it\u2019s not only that. Math, English, civics, democracy, Zionism. You want to teach your kids, \u2018We\u2019ll die and we won\u2019t enlist.\u2019 Fine, go find a plot of land, buy it, build a school, hire teachers, do it at your own cost. Build a private school; we will not fund it.\u201d<\/p>\n \t Warming to his theme, Bennett went on, \u201cYou want to not go to work your whole life. Fine, I can\u2019t force you to work. I will not give you a shekel in allowances, in reduced municipal taxes, in reduced mortgages, in daycare subsidies. Not one shekel. You don\u2019t go to the army, fine. I will not fund a shekel\u2026 We have developed something so distorted, so crazy, but it\u2019s been normalized, because we live in it, and we never woke up to say, What the heck have we done here? So now\u2019s the moment.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIn each of those three paths, which are education, employment, and the service, we will [instead] have a beautiful and compelling on-ramp,\u201d promised the former and would-be-again prime minister. \u201cWe\u2019re not fighting the Haredim; we\u2019re saving the Haredim. The on-ramp will be amazing: State Haredi schools where 60% of their curriculum is what I said, and 40% is Talmud study. Every school in Israel will have a 40% [range of specialty subjects such as] cyber, music, nature studies, but every kid will learn English, math, Bible studies, civics, and Zionism. By the way, Jews and Arabs alike. Everyone will learn that basis. You don\u2019t want to? You can build your private school.<\/p>\n \u201cSame with work,\u201d Bennett said. \u201cWhat we\u2019re going to have are job-training programs for these people\u2026 I\u2019m dati, I\u2019m a man of faith. I believe,\u201d he stressed. \u201cI learn Torah. I love the Torah. This is not against the Torah. This is for the Torah.\u201d<\/p>\n Interviewed on Channel 12 TV last week, Bennett tried multiple times to convey this message. His interviewer was insistently focusing on the battle for opposition primacy between him and Eisenkot, and Bennett had trouble getting a word in. But he tried.<\/p>\n \t At his Shoresh Institute<\/a>, Ben-David has drawn up a four-point road map for \u201censuring Israel\u2019s future.\u201d<\/p>\n Its mission: \u201cReturning Israel to a sustainable long-run trajectory \u2014 ensuring faster economic growth, lower poverty, and Israel\u2019s ability to defend itself.\u201d (He discusses it further in the podcast below.)<\/p>\n One clause mandates budgetary reform \u2014 with a \u201cshift from sectoral to national priorities\u201d and the \u201ctermination of benefits incentivizing lifestyles of non-work.\u201d<\/p>\n Another demands electoral reform, with the creation of effective checks and balances between the three branches of government, and the installation of cabinet ministers \u201cwith understanding and expertise in their ministry\u2019s realm,\u00a0within an executive branch able to implement its decisions and enforce the law.\u201d<\/p>\n Ben-David also urges the ratification of a constitution to \u201cset in stone national foundations that will protect the country and the basic rights of its citizens, making it difficult for anyone to erode these foundations in the future.\u201d<\/p>\n But his first essential remedy is to shut down Israel\u2019s current, four-stream education system entirely, and establish one education system for all, with a transformation in operation, management and oversight. He calls for a \u201ccomplete prohibition on the involvement of political parties in educational content\u201d and an overhaul of the process by which teachers are \u201cchosen, taught and compensated.\u201d And he seeks a \u201csignificant upgrade of compulsory, identical core curriculum, with state funding only for fully compliant schools.\u201d<\/p>\n \t The outgoing coalition has no intention of doing any of this \u2014 as underlined by the antics at the Knesset Finance Committee on Tuesday.<\/p>\n It has spent its four-year-term championing an ultra-Orthodox leadership that is ever-more determined to maintain its community\u2019s broad exemption from the responsibilities of national defense, multifront war notwithstanding, and it is massively funding an ultra-Orthodox non-education system knowing full well that this godless apparatus deliberately denies its students the opportunity to effectively participate in a first-class workforce.<\/p>\n \t \u201cOur country did not reach this point, nor this government, by chance,\u201d Ben-David said. \u201cWe\u2019ve been heading steadily in this direction for decades.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWhen a country starts to collapse economically, the first to leave are the most educated, the most skilled, the people with options \u2014 which means there is a greater burden on those who remain,\u201d he said in the podcast<\/a> he did with ToI\u2019s Amanda Borschel Dan this week, echoing that 2024 economists\u2019 open letter. \u201cAnd then those who can, of those who remain, leave \u2014 and then you\u2019re in a situation, basically, like Venezuela was, or like Lebanon. Beirut was once called the Paris of the Middle East. These are countries that destroyed themselves.<\/p>\n \u201cBut the difference between them and us is that they can still be around. Nobody\u2019s threatening their very existence. That\u2019s not the case with Israel. If we screw this up, there will be no country for our people or for our children.\u201d<\/p>\n And yet, Ben-David is adamant, \u201cthere is still time to make a difference.\u201d<\/p>\n If it\u2019s not already too late, then October\u2019s election will be the last chance.<\/p>\n \u2014<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/image-46.jpeg\")
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\n\t\tIsrael\u2019s educational ranking \u2014 bad, and not even the full story. (Courtesy: Shoresh Institution)<\/p>\n
\n\t\t\tby email and never miss our top stories\n\t\t<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/image-45-e1785930367284.jpeg\")
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\n\t\tThe same chart, overlaid with distribution of 1st grade Israeli students. (Courtesy: Shoresh Institution)<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/000_337C3LK-e1674059032259-640x400.jpg\")
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\n\t\tInterior and Health Minister Aryeh Deri with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at a cabinet meeting at the Prime Minister\u2019s office in Jerusalem, on January 8, 2023. (Ronen Zvulu\/Pool\/AFP)<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/image-50-e1785930432877.jpeg\")
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\n\t\tIsraeli fertility rates. (Shoresh Institution)<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/image-47.jpeg\")
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\n\t\tElementary school students in Jerusalem (Courtesy: Shoresh Institution)<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/image-48.jpeg\")
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\n\t\tThe soaring proportion of ultra-Orthodox students in Beit Shemesh, Arad, and Givat Zeev, from 2000 to 2026. (Shoresh Institution)<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/image-51-300x480.jpeg\")
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\n\t\tWho pays how much income tax (Shoresh Institution)<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/image-49.jpeg\")
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\n\t\tIsraelis coming and going (Courtesy: Shoresh Institution)<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Untitled-2-2-640x400.jpg\")
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\n\t\tB\u2019Yachad (Together) party leader and former prime minister Naftali Bennett in an interview for The Times of Israel at his Together party HQ on June 11, 2026 (Yitzhak Ledee\/Times of Israel)<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/gov_3-640x400.jpg\")
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\n\t\tProf. Dan Ben-David (left) meets with Yashar! leader Gadi Eisenkot (Shoresh Institution)<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/F260804CG60-640x400.jpg\")
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\n\t\tFinance Committee chair MK Hanoch Milwidsky, right, speaks with MKs Moshe Gafni, center, and Yitzhak Pindrus during a Knesset Finance Committee meeting in Jerusalem, August 4, 2026, at which additional funding was approved for Haredi education. (Chaim Goldberg\/Flash90)<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/F260804CG67-e1785885014188-640x400.jpg\")
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\n\t\tUltra-Orthodox protesters demonstrate against an IDF recruitment conference for the Haredi community in Jerusalem, August 4, 2026. (Chaim Goldberg\/Flash90)<\/p>\n