On video: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in a statement in Kirya 29.02.24/le
It seems like ages ago, but on the evening of October 6, we were at a pretty similar political point: the hot potato on the table of the government and the coalition was the draft, and the heads of the ultra-Orthodox factions made good use of the Knesset's summer recess to send Netanyahu a clear message - we will go to the elections if not There will be legislation that will regulate the blanket exemption of yeshiva members from the IDF, a key promise from the coalition agreements that has not yet been fulfilled. Netanyahu, as usual, tried to shift the responsibility to Defense Minister Yoav Galant, and chose his favorite tactic: postponement. Then October 7th came, and everything changed.
Or not. Almost five months have passed since the massacre in Otef and the greatest security disaster in the country's history, more than 1,200 Israeli civilians were murdered and another 583 IDF soldiers fell in battle, hundreds of thousands of reservists left their homes and mobilized on two fronts, and 134 Israelis are still being held captive by Hamas. But The operating mechanism of the sixth Netanyahu government has not undergone any software update: in the Netanyahu-Ben Gabir-Smotrich-Deri-Gafni-Goldknopf coalition, the sectoral needs and interests prevail over the state ones, and especially from the point of view of its partners, this is its purpose of existence: to anchor and secure the privileges of their sector in the country .
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Netanyahu's procrastination also remained the same, and thus, the hot potato of the recruitment continued to roll into the months of the war, until the ombudsman and the High Court of Justice issued the government a red card and a deadline until the end of March, with a real threat of stopping allowances for yeshiva students, and here the ultra-Orthodox partners are threatening Again in the elections if a law is not passed to regulate the exemption by then, just like on October 6.
It's just that the fire now, in the midst of the war, when the IDF is extending regular service and especially raising the age of exemption from reserves - is much hotter. The serving public, the secular and religious-nationalist regulars and reservists and their families, are more agitated and angry than ever about the inequality in the distribution of the burden. The opposition of Yair Lapid and Avigdor Lieberman is already pumping up the exact name of the law in question, the evasion law, and the protest organizations are preparing to use the recruitment story to bring the masses back to the streets.
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The protest organizations are preparing to use the recruitment story to bring the masses back to the streets.
A protester and an ultra-orthodox person near the recruiting office/Niv Aharonson
The heads of the coalition agreed last month to postpone, of course, the potato of the recruitment after the municipal elections, but the legal deadline has now created a great urgency for it.
This is what, among other things, brought Defense Minister Gallant to appear on Wednesday, the evening after the local elections, in front of the cameras, and declare that he will not submit a law that would not be acceptable to all parts of the coalition;
That is, from Goldknopf to Benny Gantz, the partner/annex to the emergency government, who already announced earlier this week that he demands to promote his and Gadi Eisenkot's joint service plan.
But Gantz and Eisenkot's statement was passed with a weak response compared to Gallant's ultimatum, which caused a storm in the coalition and opened editions with election scenarios, and earned the network the nickname "Galant speech 2", a reminder of the events of March last year when he warned of the security danger of the legal revolution and almost led to his dismissal.
Gallant, for the second time, leads an opposite line to the coalition's operating mechanism and brands himself as one who prefers the good of the state over sectoral interests, except for the Channel 14 studios and the Bibist Shofarot network, where he is labeled as a collaborator of Gantz and the left in a plot to overthrow the government through a constructive no-confidence motion. The statement His, it was claimed, was not compatible with Gantz, not with the ultra-orthodox, who were seething with rage, and certainly not with Netanyahu, who was quick to react yesterday with hysteria to the hot potato that Gallant presented at his own press conference.
The spontaneous demonstration after Netanyahu's announcement about Gallant's firing, March 2023/Official website, Naomi Gabison
In contrast to Gallant's sharp and focused performances, Netanyahu's performance was noticeably panicked and confused.
The main message in the half hour of television broadcast, the one that was repeated again and again, is that there should be no elections, elections are a loss in the war, elections will harm unity and fulfill Sinwar's and Hezbollah's dream.
Or in short: just not elections;
Between the usual rhetorical manipulations and the well-worn slogans of absolute victory, it was impossible to miss how frightened Netanyahu was by this idea.
He waved Gallant's ultimatum out of hand "there is no full agreement - only in North Korea" and announced that he would advance an arrangement that would set targets for ultra-Orthodox recruitment to the IDF with a simple majority in the Knesset, meaning another hot potato - the ultra-Orthodox partners above all else, and everything else will be sorted out.
Netanyahu I hope that the fear of the end of the allowances and the public spirit that resents the privilege will bring the ultra-Orthodox rabbis and their representatives to agree to some formula that will only put out the fire and restore peace, and that the fear of elections in the war will also bring Gallant, and perhaps also Gantz and Eisenkot, to also be flexible in the name of the Bihdans and the preservation of future relations with Aryeh Deri and Moshe Gafni. Only in the same breath that he raved about the importance of unity and Likud ranks, he announced that he would also promote a unilateral settlement with the majority of the 64 government, with or without them.
The message was: there must not be elections, elections are a loss in the war.
Prime Minister Netanyahu/Flash 90, Yonatan Zindel
But like almost a year ago, on the night of Gallant's dismissal, it is not certain that Netanyahu recognizes and fully appreciates the strength of the protest that will take place among the public servants if the government continues to roll the hot potato of recruitment with another sectoral combine;
The recycled promises of land and benefits for every discharged soldier will not make up for the sense of injustice in the distribution of the security burden after October 7th, certainly not from such an unpopular coalition that serves underrepresented. Gallant understands that this is where the coalition operating mechanism is leading, so he was early to raise a bright warning sign again Netanyahu tried last night to put out the fire before it starts to spread, but Gallant is not alone, MK Tali Gottlieb has also already announced that she will not support the conscription exemption law, and other voices in Likud may join and complicate his attempts to bury the hot potato.
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