{"id":74696,"date":"2026-05-17T11:25:13","date_gmt":"2026-05-17T11:25:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/74696\/"},"modified":"2026-05-17T11:25:13","modified_gmt":"2026-05-17T11:25:13","slug":"haredi-conscription-dispute-threatens-benjamin-netanyahu-coalition-stability","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/74696\/","title":{"rendered":"Haredi conscription dispute threatens Benjamin Netanyahu coalition stability"},"content":{"rendered":"

The recent statement by the spiritual leader of United Torah Judaism<\/a>, Rabbi David Landau, calling for the dissolution of the Knesset and declaring his loss of confidence in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu<\/a> carries far-reaching political implications.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It could not only precipitate early elections and bring an end to the long-standing alliance between the Right and the ultra-Orthodox parties, but also relegate the latter to the opposition for years to come, particularly in light of their insistence on preserving the status quo regarding the conscription of haredim into the IDF.<\/p>\n

For decades, much of the Israeli public has operated under the assumption that no government can be formed without the ultra-Orthodox parties, and that their political influence exceeds their demographic weight. Indeed, Israel\u2019s political history since the 1992 elections suggests that, regardless of whether the Right or the center-left prevailed, the ultra-Orthodox parties, Shas and UTJ, have typically played a pivotal role in coalition governments.<\/p>\n

Following the Labor Party\u2019s decisive victory under Yitzhak Rabin in 1992, a center-left coalition was formed with Shas, then an emerging force within haredi society. Despite the seemingly incongruous partnership, given that Shas represented Mizrahi haredim, a constituency that already leaned toward the political Right, Rabin chose to include the party to bridge social and political divides.<\/p>\n

This partnership dissolved within a year, following the indictment of Aryeh Deri and a High Court ruling requiring his dismissal. These developments also aligned with Shas\u2019s discomfort with the emerging Oslo Accords, which ran counter to prevailing sentiment within the ultra-Orthodox public.<\/p>\n

\"InsideInside the Knesset building. (credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM)<\/p>\n

A similar pattern unfolded after the 1999 elections, when Ehud Barak brought both Shas and UTJ into his coalition, expecting that their participation would help stabilize his government as he pursued negotiations with the Palestinians. Yet this partnership also proved short-lived. UTJ withdrew after Barak permitted the Israel Electric Corporation to carry out work on Shabbat, while Shas exited following his decision to attend the Camp David Summit.<\/p>\n

Although the haredi parties remained outside the government for much of Ariel Sharon\u2019s tenure, from 2001 to 2006, they soon returned to their familiar role as key coalition partners, first under Ehud Olmert, and then throughout most of Netanyahu\u2019s premierships, with the notable exception of the period between 2013 and 2015.<\/p>\n

Since the 2015 elections, they have become an integral component of Netanyahu\u2019s bloc. In the most recent elections, they secured a combined 18 seats, nearly double their strength compared to three decades ago.<\/p>\n

Yet the events of the October 7<\/a> attacks appear to have fundamentally altered the political landscape. Before Hamas\u2019s attack, Israeli society and leadership operated under the assumption that Iran and its network of proxies could be contained, even as they steadily expanded their military capabilities. In this context, the issue of haredi conscription remained largely peripheral.\u00a0<\/p>\n

IDF calls for expanded recruitment<\/p>\n

In the post-October 7 reality, however, amid a protracted war that has stretched on for over two years, the limitations of this approach have become unmistakably clear. As the IDF calls for expanded recruitment to sustain its operational capacity and relieve an overburdened reserve force, the longstanding exemption of haredim from military service has moved to the center of public debate.<\/p>\n

This moment could have served as a turning point for haredi<\/a> leadership, a chance to recalibrate and call upon their public to share in the national burden. Instead, figures such as Deri, Yitzhak Goldknopf, and Moshe Gafni have chosen to maintain the existing course.\u00a0<\/p>\n

This stance is increasingly perceived by the broader Israeli public as untenable. As a result, it is entirely plausible that, following the 2026 elections, the ultra-Orthodox parties will find themselves excluded from governing coalitions and consigned to the opposition for an extended period.<\/p>\n

The writer is a lecturer and research fellow at the University of South Wales, UK. Author of Collapse: Israeli Labor Party 1992-2024.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The recent statement by the spiritual leader of United Torah Judaism, Rabbi David Landau, calling for the dissolution…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":74697,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16469],"tags":[244,42601,39686,3254,2543,40280,21368,32455,40281],"class_list":{"0":"post-74696","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-benjamin-netanyahu","8":"tag-benjamin-netanyahu","9":"tag-ehud-olmert","10":"tag-haredi","11":"tag-idf","12":"tag-religion","13":"tag-shas","14":"tag-the-october-7-massacre","15":"tag-ultra-orthodox","16":"tag-united-torah-judaism"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@people\/116589672926602307","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74696","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=74696"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74696\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/74697"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=74696"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=74696"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=74696"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}