Coalition lawmakers are scrambling to avert a crisis after ultra-Orthodox parties conditioned their support for the 2019 state budget on advancing legislation that exempts yeshiva students from military service.
Haredi lawmakers insist that new bill on the matter, which would essentially formalize and streamline an existing arrangement for obtaining draft waivers, be submitted for a preliminary reading in the Knesset plenum as early as this week.
Apart from the cementing the waiver issue, they want to pass a new basic law that would enshrine Torah study as a core state value. Since basic laws are granted the status of a de facto constitution, they believe such a law would prevent the High Court of Justice from forcing yeshiva students to enlist in the military.
A haredi lawmaker told Israel Hayom that the ultra-Orthodox parties are not seeking to provoke a political crisis.
"We are not interested in putting pressure just for the sake of creating hysteria, and we don't mind if this matter is postponed to the next Knesset session, but the budget bill can also be postponed. As far as we are concerned, the conscription bill must pass before the budget bill," he said.
He noted that passing the budget bill would essentially ensure that the government will serve out the remainder of its term, "so this is the only leverage we have when it comes to the conscription bill."
Meanwhile, the haredi news portal Behadrey Haredim featured footage from a recent faction meeting held by the United Torah Judaism faction in which MKs discussed the way forward on the military exemption legislation.
The footage shows MK Meir Porush saying, "Everything should pass together," referring to coupling the state budget bill to the exemption bill.
In the meeting, MKs note it was an opportune moment to make this demand because of the media's focus on the corruption investigations involving Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's associates.
"This week will be all about Case 4,000 and Case 5,000," one participant said, referring to the cases that made headlines over the past week.
United Torah Judaism MK Moshe Gafni, who chairs the Knesset Finance Committee, raised the stakes on Tuesday when he said he would not let the state budget bill move forward and warned that the haredi parties would stall additional bills if their requests were not heeded.
"I will not let the coalition move forward with bizarre measures," he said.
Yisrael Beytenu, which caters to the largely secular Russian-speaking population in Israel, warned that it would not support the haredi bill.
Party leader Avigdor Lieberman took to Facebook, saying, "Our party is willing to show flexibility and reach compromises on many issues, but not when it comes to the security of the state. This is why any attempt to advance political legislation on this matter will be met with fierce opposition on our part."
