{"id":932203,"date":"2026-07-13T15:08:17","date_gmt":"2026-07-13T15:08:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/932203\/"},"modified":"2026-07-13T15:08:17","modified_gmt":"2026-07-13T15:08:17","slug":"idf-chief-says-haredi-exemption-law-threatens-national-security","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/932203\/","title":{"rendered":"IDF chief says haredi exemption law threatens national security"},"content":{"rendered":"

IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Eyal Zamir<\/a> on Monday battled with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Israel Katz<\/a> over the government\u2019s plan to pass a law exempting haredim from arrest when they dodge their legal obligations under Israel\u2019s existing military draft laws.<\/a><\/p>\n

In a letter, which was clearly intentionally leaked to the media, Zamir warned Katz \u2013 though everyone knows that the defense minister is only acting as the prime minister\u2019s lieutenant on such issues \u2013 that implementing such a law would create an array of national security problems, such that he opposes its implementation \u201ccompletely and unequivocally.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to Zamir, such a law would decrease recruitment both from the haredi community and from the general Israeli population by delegitimizing the idea of the IDF as the \u201cnation\u2019s army\u201d in which everyone is equally obligated to serve.<\/p>\n

Next, the IDF should not be put in the position of judging which yeshiva students deserve an exemption and which do not, as it has no expertise in this area, its expertise being in fighting wars, he said.<\/p>\n

Third, the IDF chief said that the anger and acrimony that such a law will create within the military will harm its cohesiveness at a critical time when it is on guard on several fronts and coping with historic gaps in troop levels because the government has failed for three-and-a-half years to recruit more haredim or to extend the mandatory and reservist recruitment laws.<\/p>\n

\"PRIMEPRIME MINISTER Benjamin Netanyahu, Defense Minister Israel Katz, and IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir attend the graduation ceremony of an IDF officers\u2019 course in southern Israel, June 25, 2026. (credit: FLASH90)<\/p>\n

In recent months, Zamir rocked the boat more privately when he warned the security cabinet that 10 red flags were going up about the IDF troop shortages coming up in January 2027, due to the government ignoring the issue.<\/p>\n

However, Zamir\u2019s leaking his letter to Katz publicly is a harsher broadside showing the growing anger, frustration, and concern inside the IDF high command about how the government is handling \u2013 or rather further undermining \u2013 the IDF in terms of future troop recruitment.<\/p>\n

Israeli leaders echo Zamir’s words<\/strong><\/p>\n

In response to the contents of Zamir\u2019s leaked letter, former Prime Minister and chairman of the Together Party, Naftali Bennett, praised the IDF Chief of Staff for his warning.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Chief of Staff is once again warning of an impending disaster, and the October 7 government is choosing to ignore all the warnings,\u201d he said. \u201cThe Chief of Staff\u2019s letter proves that there are only two sides in this situation: the side of the IDF and our soldiers, versus the side of the Deri-Netanyahu coalition. There is no third side.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bennett then addressed the upcoming elections, stating that he believes the people of Israel will stand with the IDF and \u201csend home the government that is working against IDF soldiers.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gadi Eisenkot<\/a>, leader of the Yashar! Party, also responded to Zamir\u2019s criticism of the current government. He stated, \u201cThis government led us into disaster with full awareness, while ignoring the warnings from the IDF Chief of Staff, the heads of security organizations, and members of the Knesset, including myself.\u201d<\/p>\n

Eisenkot further addressed the upcoming elections, saying, \u201cThe extent of the failure and the fear of election results have allowed this Knesset to serve its full term. Even in its final days, the Netanyahu government continues to cause damage by disregarding warnings.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe will repeal the politically motivated exemption laws when the next government is formed,\u201d Eisenkot asserted.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Eyal Zamir on Monday battled with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":867042,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2],"tags":[372,31400,26903,78128,4784,99,41044,192939,50],"class_list":["post-932203","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","tag-benjamin-netanyahu","tag-eyal-zamir","tag-gadi-eisenkot","tag-haredi-draft","tag-idf","tag-israel","tag-israel-katz","tag-naftali-bennett","tag-news"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116913303068273673","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/932203","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=932203"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/932203\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/867042"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=932203"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=932203"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=932203"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}