TEL AVIV: A member of Israel’s right-wing coalition threatened to quit the cabinet on Wednesday and support an opposition motion to dissolve parliament tabled for next week, piling pressure on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Latest opinion polls suggest that Netanyahu’s coalition would lose power if an election was held today, with many voters unhappy over the continued conflict in Gaza.
United Torah Judaism, one of two ultra-Orthodox parties in the coalition, said it would withdraw from the government unless it secured last-minute concessions formalising an exemption for ultra-Orthodox men from military service.
The opposition party Yesh Atid, led by former prime minister Yair Lapid, put forward a parliamentary vote for next week to topple the government, even as the Israeli army continues operations in the Gaza Strip. It would require the support of 61 out of the 120 members of the parliament to succeed.
“This Knesset (parliament) is finished. It has nowhere to go,” Lapid said. Netanyahu, Israel’s longest-serving prime minister, has remained silent on the looming crisis.
A spokesperson for United Torah Judaism leader Yitzhak Goldknopf said the party would vote in favour of dissolving parliament unless exemption legislation was passed. With a week until the vote, Netanyahu and his allies still have time to negotiate over an issue that has dogged the coalition for months.
A source close to the government said that negotiations within the coalition were continuing.
Netanyahu’s coalition of secular right-wing and ultra-Orthodox parties holds an 8-seat majority in parliament. United Torah Judaism has 7 seats while its ally, Shas, the other ultra-Orthodox party, has 11. The coalition is sharply divided over whether young ultra-Orthodox men who are studying in religious seminaries should be exempt from mandatory military service.
Failing to pass an exemption risks a walkout by ultra-Orthodox lawmakers, while approving it could trigger a protest exit by secular parties. Coalition member Ohad Tal of Bezalel Smotrich’s Religious Zionism party criticised Goldknopf for threatening to trigger elections and called on the ultra-Orthodox lawmaker to resign.
He urged others to negotiate a new arrangement but that a blanket exemption from military service could no longer stand.
Former Knesset member Ofer Shelah said Netanyahu was likely betting the ultra-Orthodox lawmakers were bluffing, given the polls suggested they faced defeat in any early election.
In March, ultra-Orthodox lawmakers threatened to bring down the government over the same issue, but time passed without any action. Resentment over the informal exemption given to religious seminary students is growing and lawmakers from the ruling coalition and opposition ranks say it is no longer tenable.
