The first stages of the supposed peace agreement in the Gaza Strip are stirring up the ghosts of Israeli domestic politics. In the midst of a climate in which civil society breathes a sigh of relief at the handover of the hostages who were still alive, with the Zionist extreme right calling for Netanyahu to massacre Gaza again and with the first official approval in Parliament for . With all this backdrop, the ultra-Orthodox Sephardic people have risen up strongly this Thursday with the same threat that the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, managed to weather in the summer.
The party, which has 11 seats and is the fourth largest party in the Knesset, has issued a statement with an ultimatum regarding legislation on the . In this document, they assure that the rabbis have pressured to such an extent that their political representatives will abandon government positions in the coalition that supports a Likud of the Israeli president who already makes many passes through the polls that is not capable of achieving a stable majority.
The Sephardic ultra-Orthodox allude to the position adopted in the Council of Sages of the Torah and that leads them to abandon the positions they currently hold in said coalition, specifically the leadership of the Committees for Education, Health and Overcoming Social Gaps in the Periphery, according to the progressive Israeli newspaper. . They have also made it clear that this includes them, but could end up moving to other ultra-Orthodox formations.
In the statement, the political formation specifies that it “will act in full coordination with other haredi factions and will continually consult with the Council of Torah Sages regarding its position on voting in the Knesset plenary session.”
What happens with the ultra-Orthodox and the military in Israel?
The truth is that last summer, the coalition that keeps Netanyahu in power was close to breaking up, but it was this same ultra-Orthodox formation that backed down at the last moment, saving the Executive. It was argued that it was a crucial moment, with the war machine active at all times against Gaza, and appeals were made to national unity.
The Sephardim decided to stay in office, faced with the decision of the ultra-Orthodox United Judaism of the Torah formation, who abandoned them. But Netanyahu had to make concessions, fundamentally, the promise of a law that would reduce the number of ultra-Orthodox who would be recruited and sanctions on those who refused to accept the recruitment card.
According to the Israeli channel Can 11which has had access to the draft of the new law that the Likud should present this week in the Israeli Parliament, and which would include those reductions that they had agreed upon. Specifically, half of the young ultra-Orthodox will be recruited in each recruitment cycle or call, and over a period of 5 years. However, this draft law also includes that, if recruitment objectives are not met, personal sanctions against the ultra-Orthodox will be gradually implemented after the two-year period.
