Government Secretary Yossi Fuchs accused senior Haredi rabbinic authority Rabbi Dov Lando on Tuesday of personally halting the military enlistment bill just as it was ready to pass, following nearly two years of negotiations.
Speaking at a national responsibility conference held by the Gush Katif Heritage Center, Fuchs said the legislation was fully drafted after two years of work and eighty six separate discussions. According to Fuchs, it was Rabbi Lando who stopped the bill at the last moment, and that intervention is why the government ultimately failed to advance it.
Fuchs described the bill as toughening existing enlistment law across the board, applying only to service in the Israel Defense Forces rather than national service alternatives, and carrying personal sanctions that would follow individuals through housing, public transportation, and access to dormitories. He said this framework represents the only formula that can pass, warning that no alternative version would be acceptable.
He was blunt about what comes next. Fuchs said that in the next government, Haredi parties will not receive what he called a blank page on which to write their own demands, and that any future law must include real enlistment targets and personal sanctions or it will not happen at all.
Senior Haredi officials pushed back sharply on Fuchs's account, calling it inaccurate. They said it was Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu himself who phoned coalition lawmakers to tell them he lacked a majority for the bill, and that Netanyahu was the one who halted the legislation, citing rebels within Likud. They questioned how Fuchs could make what they described as false claims and then blame the Haredi side for the outcome.
The exchange comes amid a broader rupture between Netanyahu and Rabbi Lando, after the rosh yeshiva's recent remarks touched off a public controversy that Netanyahu has since responded to directly, further straining relations between the prime minister and the Haredi political leadership ahead of the next election.
