Former Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett launched a fierce attack on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over efforts to preserve military exemptions for ultra-Orthodox Jews, exposing growing fractures within the Israeli political establishment as "Israel’s" regional wars continue and reservists face repeated mobilization.
The dispute erupted during a heated Knesset debate over legislation designed to protect exemptions for Haredi religious seminary students from compulsory military service, a long-standing policy that has increasingly come under scrutiny amid “Israel’s” prolonged military aggression in Gaza and across the region.
Critics inside "Israel" argue that the burden of sustaining the war is falling disproportionately on "secular and nationalist Israelis," while ultra-Orthodox parties continue leveraging their political influence to shield their communities from conscription.
Bennett slams Netanyahu
Speaking at a Knesset press conference, Bennett accused Netanyahu of sacrificing political principles in order to preserve his fragile coalition government.
“The outgoing prime minister is running around like a desperate vote contractor, groveling before Deri and Gafni, just to submit an official surrender document to them,” Bennett said. “I have three words to say to him: it's over. Let go.”
Bennett was referring to ultra-Orthodox political figures Aryeh Deri and Moshe Gafni, whose parties have demanded legal guarantees maintaining broad exemptions from military service.
The former prime minister also denounced the legislation as a betrayal of Israeli soldiers engaged in the war on Gaza.
“We stood here today to block one of the greatest low moments in the history of the Knesset of Israel. The passage of an anti-Zionist draft evasion law, against IDF soldiers, in the midst of a war,” he said.
Draft crisis
The political crisis follows a 2024 Israeli Supreme Court ruling ordering the state to begin drafting ultra-Orthodox men into military service, ending decades of sweeping exemptions that had allowed thousands of religious students to avoid enlistment.
Despite the ruling, ultra-Orthodox factions have continued threatening Netanyahu’s coalition with collapse unless legislation is passed preserving exemptions and protecting religious institutions from sanctions.
The controversy has intensified as Israeli forces remain engaged in devastating military operations in Gaza that have killed tens of thousands of Palestinians and triggered mounting international condemnation, while reservists inside "Israel" face growing exhaustion after months of continuous deployment.
Internal contradictions
For many observers, the dispute reflects deeper contradictions inside Israeli society regarding militarization, political power, and unequal participation in a war that has increasingly polarized both the region and the international community.
Bennett, despite positioning himself as a critic of Netanyahu, has himself long been associated with hardline nationalist policies, support for settlement expansion, and aggressive military operations against Palestinians, underscoring that the current dispute largely centers on how the Israeli state manages the burden of war rather than opposition to the war itself.
Source:Websites
