If Benjamin Netanyahu cannot soon deliver a law that codifies haredi enlistment-avoidance into law, United Torah Judaism and Shas have threatened to collapse the government, forcing the dissolution of the Likud-led Knesset, say Calev Ben David and Elliot Jager in their Jerusalem Dispatch Podcast.

In 2002, Likud Prime Minister Ariel Sharon submitted to Haredi pressure and pushed the “Tal Law” through the Knesset, which exempted adults “whose occupation is the study of Torah” from IDF service.

In 2012, the Supreme Court ruled that the law was unconstitutional. The present Netanyahu-led government has exhausted 13 years of delaying strategies and broken promises to the haredi parties.

It must either pass a new enlistment-avoidance law to shield haredim or implement the existing law that places sanctions on individuals and institutions that flout the draft.

'Perfect storm that could topple government'

According to Ben-David and Jager, the Israel-Hamas War created a perfect storm that could topple the government: over 1,118 citizens and soldiers dead, the IDF begging for personnel, National-Religious citizens joining other Israelis in demanding haredim share in the national burdens, and the Supreme Court pressing Netanyahu to sanction draft-dodging yeshivas financially.

Also, in this episode, Ben-David draws a connection between Jerusalem’s gay parade and an LGBTQ mayoral endorsement in NYC’s Democratic Primary.