Netanyahu, About 3 Months Before Elections: "We Will Pass a Draft Law That Meets IDF Needs"
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stated that in the next government, those who do not study Torah will be drafted or face imprisonment. He also announced that the law to cancel the arrest of deserters is off the table.
Changing direction? Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said today (Sunday) in a closed discussion that in the next government, "whoever does not study Torah will be drafted — or will go to prison." This comes after he spent long months trying to promote an exemption law in a format contrary to the army's position, while voices were clearly heard from the ultra-Orthodox side that even those who do not study would not be drafted.
Netanyahu further said that the law to cancel the arrest of deserters is off the table, after the Supreme Court, as recalled, froze it.
"The temporary arrest law was intended to lower the flames and increase the number of recruits in the ultra-Orthodox public. In practice, it did not succeed, and therefore there will be no such law in the next government. After the elections, we will establish a broad national government that will immediately pass a full draft law that will meet the needs of the IDF. Whoever does not study Torah will be drafted — or will go to prison."
The change of direction comes against the backdrop of the Likud's situation in the polls, in most of which it appears that the Prime Minister is very far from forming a government after the elections this coming October. Promoting the exemption law as well as the law to cancel the arrest of deserters led to much criticism of the coalition in general and the Prime Minister in particular, even from within the Likud.
