The Clock Is Ticking
Sanctions, Sabotage, and Survival: Netanyahu’s Coalition Clings to Power in Pre-Dawn Knesset Showdown
After hours of political arm-twisting, pressure, and the release of spins and headlines, the government narrowly escaped humiliation with the passage of the Knesset dissolution bill at the last moment



After a politically charged night full of spins and contradictory reports, the coalition led by Benjamin Netanyahu narrowly avoided the preliminary passage of the Knesset dissolution bill in the early hours of Thursday morning, largely due to a mutual “concession” by the Chairman of the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, Yuli Edelstein, and the ultra-Orthodox factions, who backed down from several clauses they had insisted on in the draft exemption law.
In fact, the Knesset dissolution bill was rejected this morning with a vote of 61 against and 53 in favor: Degel HaTorah and Shas opposed the Moshe Roth bill, while part of Agudat Yisrael supported it.
Throughout hours of intense negotiations, there was arm-twisting between the sides over the nature of the sanctions to be imposed on young ultra-Orthodox men who refuse to enlist and when these sanctions would take effect.
Through significant effort, agreements were reached on clauses such as revoking driver’s licenses, restricting travel abroad, or canceling affirmative action in employment and discounts on National Insurance contributions.
The ultra-Orthodox representatives were not aligned during the discussions, despite the unified stance of Degel HaTorah and Shas against dissolution. Minister Yitzhak Goldknopf, Deputy Minister Yaakov Tessler, and MK Moshe Roth supported the dissolution of the Knesset.
Goldknopf is now expected to resign from the government and return to the Knesset under the Norwegian Law, at the expense of MK Roth, who will go home.
The Agreed Principles
1. The pool of draftees will be ages 18-26.
2. Target: Drafting 4,800 ultra-Orthodox men in the first year, 5,700 in the second year, and within five years, the ultra-Orthodox will need to meet a target of 50% of the draft cohort.
3. However, if only 95% of the recruitment target is met, it will be considered as if the goals have been met, and no sanctions will be imposed.
Immediate Personal Sanctions
If the targets are not clearly met, effective immediately upon the law’s enactment:
Sanctions: Semi-Annual, Annual, and Biennial
If the semi-annual target is not met, in the second half of the year, the following will be revoked:
If the annual target is not met, the following year, National Insurance benefits will be revoked.
If the target is not met after two years, sanctions will intensify and include:
Institutional Sanctions
If 75% or more of the target is met, any shortfall percentage will be doubled and deducted from the yeshiva budgets. For example, if 90% of the target is met, the remaining 10% will be doubled, and 20% will be cut from the yeshiva budgets.
If less than 75% of the target is met, 100% of the yeshiva budgets will be canceled.
The agreements sparked an uproar in the Knesset plenum, and, at 3:15am, the leader of the National Camp asked the former Defense Minister and IDF Chief of Staff: “What did you sit on? What did you agree on? What’s this whole story ... About the sanctions? Who gets them and who doesn’t, and when? Why do my sons get a draft order and go to the army without sanctions, without questions?”
The significant achievement for the government’s continued survival is credited to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his ally, Shas Chairman Aryeh Deri, who throughout the process made combined efforts to ensure the government’s survival without the looming threat of the Knesset dissolution bill, which passed its preliminary reading.
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