Former Air Force Chief of Staff, Col. (res.) Nimrod Sheffer, addressed the bill that would exempt haredim from military service, saying in an interview with Ynet that "there are tens of thousands of refusers who are going to receive certification from the state. The dangerous thing here is that the government is giving it legal validity." According to him, "not a single pilot went out to protest when the current Netanyahu government was elected, but when they began to harm the legal system people were called out. The pilots don't need to prove anything, the Air Force's actions changed the Middle East. Now the government needs to prove that it is not heading toward dictatorship."