Kariv: Democrats won't drop draft, blocking Eisenkot coalition

MK Gilad Kariv (Democrats) has made clear his party will not compromise on equal burden-sharing in the draft, effectively shutting the door on the haredi parties and leaving change-bloc candidate Gadi Eisenkot with no viable path to forming a government.

In an interview with Radio A-Shams, Kariv said: "I think United Torah Judaism will not join our government in the end, and I think we cannot throw aside the enlistment issue entirely." He added: "If Liberman and Bennett know how to bring United Torah Judaism and also bring some reasonable and proper solution to the enlistment issue, please, go ahead."

The parliamentary trap facing the change bloc

Behind the principled statement on the draft law lies a complex political reality that complicates government-formation efforts. The insistence by elements in the change bloc not to give up on the enlistment issue means closing the door on United Torah Judaism and Shas, both of which have set a draft-exemption law as a threshold condition for entering any coalition.

Without the support of the chareidi parties, Eisenkot's only route to a parliamentary majority and a government is to rely, actively or passively, on the support or abstention of the Arab parties.

But that path is also blocked from within: Yisrael Beiteinu chairman Avigdor Liberman has stated repeatedly that he is categorically opposed to any cooperation with or reliance on the Arab parties. Liberman's opposition leaves Eisenkot with no possible coalition, not from the right with the haredim, and not from the left with the Arab bloc, and strengthens assessments in the political system that the path to another election or a dead end is growing shorter.