JERUSALEM: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s hard-right government survived an opposition bid to dissolve parliament on Thursday, as lawmakers rejected a bill that could have paved the way for snap elections.
Out of the Knesset’s 120 members, 61 voted against the proposal, with 53 in favour.
The opposition had introduced the bill hoping to force elections with the help of ultra-Orthodox parties in the governing coalition angry at Netanyahu over the contentious issue of exemptions from military service for their community.
While the opposition is composed mainly of centrist and leftist groups, ultra-Orthodox parties that are propping up Netanyahu’s government had earlier threatened to back the motion.
The results of the vote Thursday morning, however, showed that most ultra-Orthodox lawmakers ultimately did not back the opposition bill, with just a small number voting in favour.
The opposition will now have to wait six months before it can try again.
Before the vote, Yuli Edelstein, a lawmaker from Netanyahu’s right-wing Likud party, announced that after lengthy discussions, parties had agreed on the “principles on which the draft conscription law will be based”.
Edelstein, who chairs the foreign affairs and defence committee, did not specify the terms of the agreement.
“As I said all along — only a real, effective bill that leads to an expansion of the (Israeli military’s) recruitment base will emerge from the committee I chair,“ he wrote on social media platform X.
“This is historic news, and we are on the path to real reform in Israeli society and strengthening the security of the State of Israel.”
Edelstein had earlier put forward a bill aimed at increasing the number of ultra-Orthodox conscripted, and tightening the penalties for those who refuse to serve.
Opposition leader Yair Lapid, meanwhile, said the government was seeing the beginning of the end.
“When coalitions begin to fall apart, they fall apart. It started and this is what it looks like when a government begins to collapse,“ he said.
Ultra-Orthodox parties had been given a choice between losing a law on their exemption from military service, or losing their place in the government, and they chose exemption, Lapid added.
“The government helped them… organise the exemption of tens of thousands of healthy young people,“ he said, referring to ultra-Orthodox Israelis.
Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi hit back, saying the coalition government was “moving forward” and “stronger than ever”.
Earlier on Wednesday, opposition leaders had said their decision to bring the dissolution bill to the Knesset for a vote was “made unanimously and is binding on all factions”.
They said that all opposition parties would freeze their lawmaking activities to focus on “the overthrow of the government”.
Netanyahu’s coalition is one of the most right-wing in the country’s history. It includes two ultra-Orthodox parties — Shas and United Torah Judaism (UTJ).
The two parties had threatened to back the motion for early elections.
‘Existential danger’
Military service is mandatory in Israel but, under a ruling that dates back to the country’s creation when the ultra-Orthodox were a very small community, men who devote themselves full-time to the study of Jewish scripture are given a de facto pass.
Whether that should change has been a long-running issue.
Efforts to scrap the exemption have intensified during the nearly 20-month war in Gaza as the military looks for extra manpower.
Netanyahu is under pressure from his Likud party to draft more ultra-Orthodox men — a red line for parties such as Shas, who demand a law guaranteeing their constituents permanent exemption from military service.
Ahead of the vote in the early hours of Thursday morning, Israeli media reported that officials from Netanyahu’s coalition were holding talks with ultra-Orthodox leaders hoping to find common ground.
In an apparent bid to allow time for those negotiations, Netanyahu’s coalition filled the Knesset’s agenda with bills to delay the vote.
Far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said that bringing down the government during wartime would pose “an existential danger” to Israel’s future.
“History will not forgive anyone who drags the state of Israel into elections during a war,“ Smotrich told parliament, adding that there was a “national and security need” for ultra-Orthodox to fight in the military.
Netanyahu’s government is a coalition between his Likud party, far-right groups and ultra-Orthodox parties, whose departure would leave it without a parliamentary majority.
