In fresh attacks, Lieberman denounces 'surrender' to Haredi parties
For second consecutive day, defense minister unleashes opprobrium against Haredi parties for producing coalition crisis over IDF conscription law, accuses ministers of succumbing to 'extortion' and vows not to support any compromise formulated by politicians outside the defense establishment.
“The draft bill that is being formulated at the moment is not a compromise, but rather a letter of surrender to an act of extortion,” Lieberman wrote in reference to attempts by coalition members to resolve the crisis by forming a compromise bill that would placate ultra-Orthodox parties.
The crisis erupted in recent weeks when the Council of Torah Sages demanded that Deputy Health Minister Yaakov Litzman’s United Torah Judaism (UTJ) make his support for the 2019 state budget dependent on the passage of an amendment to the current conscription law that would solicit state recognition of Torah studies to being equal to military service.
The amendment Litzman is seeking to the current law would essentially facilitate exemption from military service for yeshiva students.
However, in a bid to mollify the intransigent position being taken by UTJ and avert the calling of snap elections, ministers gathered to come up with what could be an acceptable compromise amendment.
“The ultimatum of ‘either the conscription bill or the the state budget’ was put forward by the Haredi parties. The ultimatum ‘either the conscription bill in a second and third reading in May or dismantlement of the coalition’ was decided by the Haredi parties,” the defense minister continued.
Complicating matters further, he also promised that his own political party, “Yisrael Beytenu will support a bill only if it is drafted by the defense establishment and the IDF. On the matter of security there is no compromise.”
The compromise that members of the coalition began fleshing out on Thursday includes alterations to the proposed amendment which was set to be discussed on Friday by the Ministerial Committee on Legislation.
The compromise is expected, inter alia, to include a quota of 3,800 Haredi conscripts into the military and the civil service which will rise each draft cycle.
In the event that the quota is not met, the law would require that sanctions be imposed on the yeshivas and it would expire every five years and need to be approved afresh. The sanctions currently being debated for failure to enlist, in the meantime, are strictly economic.
The draft compromise is supposed to be presented to Litzman and the rabbis on Friday. However, with Lieberman toughening his stance and declaring his reluctance to accept any phrasing of the amendment by political rather than military officials outside the defense establishment, a new spanner has been thrown into the works.
On Thursday evening, Lieberman attacked the ultra-Orthodox parties for their part in the crisis, calling them a "group of extremist element.”
"In recent days, the people of Israel have been taken hostage by a group of extremist elements. They're threatening to drag all of us to unnecessary elections, in a complex security reality, and demand that we give in to their extortion, or they would dismantle the right-wing government. We must not and we will not allow that to happen," Lieberman said.
The crisis has ensured that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s return landing from his five-day trip to the US on Friday will not be soft.
Since Sunday is the final day on which the IDF conscription bill can be brought before the Ministerial Committee on Legislation, the prime minister will have just two days to decide whether to intervene and settle the matter or call early elections, as he threatened to do while in the US if the coalition could not work it out.
Some have speculated that the tactic is a mere ploy to let the government unravel itself, thereby providing a pretext for Netanyahu to call elections, bolster his mandate and extricate himself from the net of corruption investigations closing in around him, while simultaneously demonstrating his indispensability in keeping a coalition together.
“Bibi is concerned for himself,” said one minister earlier this week, arguing that the rationale behind calling elections stemmed from investigations, not the coalition infighting.
“He’s thinking about the investigations, about the police recommendations to indict him and about the state’s witnesses. He prefers to go to elections before the decision about the indictment and to renew the nation’s faith. He is just riding on the back of the conscription crisis.”
With the prevailing uncertainty on whether or not elections are on the horizon, Bayit Yehudi party leader and Education Minister Naftali Bennett has already outlined his own preconditions for joining any future government, demanding that he replace Lieberman.
“I don’t intend to push Netanyahu aside, but if he assembles the next government I absolutely intend to demand the defense minister's portfolio,” Bennett said in an interview with Army Radio. “If he leaves the stage, I intend to run for prime minister.”
