Shas chairman MK Arye Deri said his party won’t join or support Israel’s next government unless legislation regulating the military service status of haredi yeshiva students passes. The condition applies regardless of who forms the government. In an interview with Kikar HaShabbat, Deri said: “There will be no government in Israel with Shas’s support or participation unless the status of yeshiva students is regulated.”
That puts the state’s power to demand military service at the heart of coalition bargaining. The dispute isn’t whether the state commands an army, but who must serve and who gets an exemption. Shas is making its participation in the next government conditional on legislation governing that status.
A coalition price tag
The October 27 Knesset election was approaching, and haredi military enlistment had become a central issue in negotiations before voters went to the polls. Parties sharply disagreed over whether yeshiva students should continue receiving exemptions from IDF service. The vote is near. Bargaining over who bears the state’s service requirement is already underway.
Shas and United Torah Judaism (UTJ) have a longstanding partnership in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition. They faced recent criticism over their position on haredi conscription during the IDF’s severe manpower crisis. The haredi parties urged Netanyahu’s coalition to advance legislation that critics argued wouldn’t increase haredi enlistment during the government’s term.
The parties also boycotted coalition votes, saying they wouldn’t cooperate until the coalition made progress on contentious legislation they had promoted. Their leverage is parliamentary: they can withhold cooperation, and Deri says Shas will withhold support for a future government unless it meets his condition. The argument is playing out inside the institutions that decide both who governs and the rules for military service.
The manpower warning
The IDF has repeatedly warned of an urgent manpower shortage after three years of war. In March, IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Eyal Zamir said the IDF could soon collapse if no solution emerged. The article doesn’t say the proposed legislation would resolve that shortage; it reports critics’ argument that the legislation wouldn’t increase haredi enlistment during the government’s term.
Former prime minister Naftali Bennett, who leads the B’Yachad party, condemned Deri’s position and Netanyahu’s partnership with the haredi parties. “Netanyahu will continue funding draft dodgers, and in return, Deri will give him the reins of power, all at the expense of those who serve,” Bennett said. He added: “The IDF chief of staff is raising 10 red flags over the army’s collapse, while Deri, a member of the Security Cabinet, tells him: We intend to continue down the same path and institutionalize draft evasion.”
Bennett also said: “A vote for Netanyahu, [Finance Minister Bezalel] Smotrich, or Deri is a vote for draft evasion, 150 days of reserve duty a year, and billions of shekels every year transferred from the pockets of those who serve to those who evade service.” Those are Bennett’s claims about the burden and funding; the article offers no independent breakdown of the figures.
MK Avigdor Liberman, leader of the Yisrael Beytenu party, said Deri had “admitted in his own words that he will agree to forming a government only if his puppet, Netanyahu, agrees to permanently exempt all haredim from military service.” Liberman said that would mean “an even greater burden on those who serve, hundreds more days of reserve duty, and further extensions of mandatory service for active-duty soldiers.”
The leaders disagree over exemptions, enlistment and the cost of staffing the army. Deri has stated his condition. The IDF chief has warned of possible collapse. Opposition leaders say those who serve will shoulder more of the burden. People living under the service rules remain the measure of this coalition bargain.