Deri: Haredim Won't Break With the Right Over Draft Crisis

Shas chairman Aryeh Deri said the Haredi parties will not dismantle their political partnership with the right-wing bloc despite the deepening crisis over the draft law.

In an interview on the Channel 14 program Sicha with Oded Harush, Deri was asked whether Shas and United Torah Judaism could end their alliance with the right because of the dispute over Haredi enlistment. His answer was direct.

“That will not happen,” Deri said.

Deri also sought to clarify Shas’s position on the draft issue, arguing that the Haredi parties have never advanced a law based on the claim that every Haredi man should automatically be exempt from military service.

“We never led a law saying that someone who is Haredi does not go to the army,” Deri said. “Remember, all the laws, all the time, throughout the years, we said that only someone whose Torah is his profession, meaning only someone who is learning, should continue learning.”

Asked about Haredim who are not learning, Deri said the focus must be on creating army frameworks that preserve their religious identity.

“I tell them that we are working to ensure something that did not exist for decades: that the army will guarantee that whoever enters Haredi, leaves Haredi,” he said. “That is our role. And I hope that finally we will succeed.”

Deri accused the IDF of having ignored this concern for years, saying the army did not truly want Haredi soldiers and failed to create conditions that would allow them to serve while remaining Haredi.

“The army belittled this all these years,” he said. “They did not want them.”

He then linked the issue to broader tensions between the army and religious soldiers, arguing that the IDF also struggles with the soldiers and officers of religious Zionism.

“Just like they do not like the soldiers of religious Zionism,” Deri said. “They change everything for them there. They do not like their officers and they do not like their soldiers.”

At the same time, Deri acknowledged that the army’s current manpower needs have changed the situation. He said there is no doubt that the IDF now needs more fighters, and that this has pushed the army to take the issue of Haredi service more seriously.

“There is no doubt that the army today needs more combat soldiers,” Deri said. “That is why it is taking this more seriously today, and is more prepared to invest. Not only because the political leadership is pressuring it, but because it also understands the need.”

Deri’s comments come as the Haredi draft crisis continues to shake the coalition and dominate the election campaign. His message was aimed in two directions at once: preserving the Haredi alliance with the right, while insisting that any solution must protect full-time Torah learners and create service frameworks that do not undermine Haredi identity.