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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu faces a vote to dissolve parliament Wednesday and key coalition partners have threatened to bring down his government over the failure to pass a law exempting ultra-Orthodox community from military service according to report by the AP.
Still, few think it's the end of the road for Israel's longest-serving prime minister, who has been battling corruption charges for years, or his far-right government, still in power after presiding over the security failures surrounding the Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023, attack.
Israeli Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara announced Thursday that the army will issue over 50,000 mandatory conscription orders to ultra-Orthodox (Haredi) yeshiva students in July.
The announcement came after her meeting with senior Israeli army officials, Israel's public broadcaster KAN reported.
Baharav-Miara stressed that the matter of drafting Haredim "is not progressing sufficiently, as the army urgently needs new recruits, which requires imposing personal sanctions on draft evaders," KAN said.
On Wednesday, the ultra-Orthodox Shas party announced that it would join the United Torah Judaism alliance in seeking to dissolve Israel's Knesset, or parliament, and topple Netanyahu's government due to the conscription impasse, according to Israeli media.
Israeli outlets including Yedioth Ahronoth and Haaretz reported that senior rabbis from ultra-Orthodox parties have called for withdrawing from the coalition because of the ongoing deadlock in legislating a military draft exemption law for religious Jews.
The ultra-Orthodox United Torah Judaism party's Hasidic Agudat Yisrael faction intends to support a bill to be submitted next week by opposition parties to dissolve the Israeli Knesset, Channel 12 reported Thursday.
Most Jewish men are required to serve nearly three years of military service followed by years of reserve duty. Jewish women serve two mandatory years. But the politically powerful ultra-Orthodox, who make up roughly 13% of Israeli society, have traditionally received exemptions if they are studying full-time in religious seminaries.
The exemptions — and the government stipends many seminary students receive through age 26 — have infuriated the general public.
Haredim oppose military service on religious grounds, arguing that studying the Torah is their primary duty and that integration into secular society threatens their religious identity and community cohesion.
After Hamas' 2023 attack, Israel activated 360,000 reservists, its largest mobilization since the 1973 Mideast war. Israel is engaged in the longest active war in the country's history, which has stretched its robust military to the breaking point.
Many reserve soldiers have served multiple rounds of duty in Gaza totaling hundreds of days. Some reserve soldiers are rejecting new call-ups.
The number of Israelis continuing to report for reserve duty has dropped so low that the military has taken to social media to try to recruit people to keep serving.
The governing coalition currently holds 68 seats and needs at least 61 to remain in power. The move to dissolve, called by the opposition, will only pass if Netanyahu's ultra-Orthodox coalition partners break with him.
Two parties belonging to the Haredim are essential to PM Benjamin Netanyahu's coalition. Both would need to vote to dissolve the government to force new elections, including Shas, which has traditionally been more supportive of Netanyahu.
On Monday, a Shas spokesperson told an ultra-Orthodox radio program the party currently plans to vote in favor of dissolution, unless there is a breakthrough in negotiations.
The enlistment exemption for the ultra-Orthodox goes back to Israel's 1948 founding, when small numbers of gifted scholars were exempt from the draft in response to the decimation of Jewish scholarship during the Holocaust.
But with a push from politically powerful religious parties, the numbers have swelled to tens of thousands today. Israel's Supreme Court said the exemptions were illegal in 2017, but repeated extensions and government delay tactics have prevented a replacement law from being passed.
Ultra-Orthodox communities continue to protest against military service following a June 25, 2024 Supreme Court ruling obliging them to enlist and prohibiting financial support for religious institutions whose students refuse to serve.
Netanyahu frequently cites the ongoing war as a reason why Israel needs to provide a united front against its enemies. While the ultra-Orthodox parties remain part of the coalition, they want the war to end as quickly as possible.
If elections are not brought forward, the next scheduled vote will be in 2026. If the dissolution vote passes, it still faces a series of bureaucratic steps, including additional votes, that the government would likely drag on for weeks or months.
The Israeli opposition has accused Netanyahu of attempting to pass legislation exempting Haredim from service to satisfy coalition partners and avoid a government collapse.
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