Jerusalem, 4 June, 2025 (TPS-IL) -- Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu concluded emergency talks Wednesday evening with Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee Chairman Yuli Edelstein as Israel’s governing coalition faces potential collapse over military conscription legislation, with both major Haredi-Orthodox parties now threatening to dissolve the Knesset.
The crisis escalated Wednesday when spiritual leaders of Degel HaTorah, a faction within the United Torah Judaism party, instructed their Knesset members to introduce legislation dissolving parliament after last-ditch negotiations with Edelstein failed. Shas, the other major Haredi party, quickly followed suit, with party leader Aryeh Deri stating in an internal meeting that Shas also supports dissolving the Knesset.
Following Netanyahu’s meeting with Edelstein, the Prime Minister’s Office announced that “it was clarified that there is a way to bridge the gaps on the issue of conscription,” offering a glimmer of hope amid escalating threats from Haredi parties to dissolve the Knesset. Netanyahu has scheduled another meeting with Edelstein for Thursday afternoon, including Cabinet Secretary Yossi Fuchs and former Shas MK Ariel Atias, who is coordinating Haredi recruitment negotiations.
The confrontation centers on a draft law currently moving through the Knesset that would require Haredi men to serve in the Israeli military, breaking decades of exemptions for yeshiva students. Edelstein, who is shepherding the legislation, insists on maintaining strict personal sanctions for those who evade military service, a position that has triggered fierce opposition from Haredi parties and even within his own Likud party.