A Nation Asked to Bleed - A Leader Who Bargained: The Haredi Draft Crisis and Netanyahu’s Erosion of National Leadership

Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s longest-serving prime minister, has clung to power for nearly two decades. Now, his increasingly fragile right-wing coalition is beginning to fracture. United Torah Judaism and Shas, two Haredi parties in the Knesset, have left the government over the Haredi draft issue.

Within Haredi communities, full-time Torah scholars have long been exempt from Israel’s mandatory military service, a policy dating back to the founding of the Israeli state in 1948. But the tragic events of October 7th have reignited public anger over this exemption. As hundreds of thousands of Israelis have been called to fight in Gaza, 445 of them losing their lives in battle, the Haredi community has largely continued to avoid service. At present, approximately 80,000 Haredi men between the ages of 18 and 24 are eligible for military service yet have not enlisted. During one of the most intense wars in Israel’s history, when manpower is stretched thin, the burden of national defence has fallen overwhelmingly on the secular majority. Businesses have shut down, families have been uprooted, and young men and women have risked and lost their lives. Meanwhile, the Haredi sector has remained on the sidelines, unwilling to equally contribute.

With the Knesset failing to pass new legislation to enshrine exemptions, the law clearly mandates that Haredim be drafted. But instead of enforcing this legal and moral obligation, Netanyahu has chosen to put his coalition partners first in order to secure his premiership. When Yuli Edelstein, chair of the Foreign Affairs and Defence Committee, refused to advance legislation continuing the exemption, Netanyahu removed him, replacing him with a close ally, Boaz Bismuth. This was a clear political manoeuvre aimed at appeasing the ultra-Orthodox and preserving his grip on power. While United Torah Judaism withdrew from both the government and the coalition, Shas opted to leave the government but remain within the coalition, in an attempt to negotiate a deal with Netanyahu. Should Shas follow United Torah Judaism's lead, Netanyahu's coalition would lose its majority and likely collapse. As a result, the Haredi parties wield considerable leverage over Netanyahu. Rather than confront them, he has increasingly sought to placate their demands in order to protect his premiership.

Rather than serve the national interest, Netanyahu is once again serving himself.

In his bid to remain in power at all costs, Benjamin Netanyahu has become a political prisoner of the extremist factions within his coalition. He is beholden not only to the ultra-Orthodox parties on the Haredi draft issue, but also to the far-right ideologues Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich on Gaza and the future of the West Bank.

Ben-Gvir, barred from IDF service due to his extremist views, is a convicted criminal, found guilty of incitement to racism and supporting a terrorist organisation. He is an open admirer of Baruch Goldstein, a Jewish terrorist who murdered 29 Palestinians in a Hebron mosque in 1994, even hanging a photo of Goldstein in his family home. Today, in a bitter twist of irony, Ben-Gvir serves as Israel’s Minister of National Security.

Smotrich, now Finance Minister, has denied the existence of a Palestinian people and has openly called for the annexation of the entire West Bank based on Jewish divine right. He has referred to Arabs as his ‘enemies’, advocated for separating Arab and Jewish mothers in maternity wards, and claimed that Israel’s media is controlled by the gay community.  

Once confined to the fringes of Israeli politics, figures like Ben-Gvir and Smotrich have now been legitimised by Netanyahu, who brought them into his coalition and handed them control over powerful ministries. Both advocate for the continuation of the war and the occupation of Gaza. They now wield significant influence over Netanyahu’s decisions, and would likely oppose any 'day after' plan for the Gaza Strip. As Haviv Rettig Gur, senior analyst at The Times of Israel, notes, “Netanyahu’s politics are clearly part of his driving impetus in making decisions on the war”. Yet he also highlights the absence of credible alternatives from the opposition, arguing that criticism alone is not enough.

Itamar Ben-Gvir (Left) and Bezalel Smotrich (Right)

While Netanyahu has demonstrated leadership in foreign policy, particularly concerning Iran and Hezbollah, that same decisiveness is absent at home. Surveys suggest that a majority of the Israeli public does not trust their prime minister. Domestically, his leadership has come to resemble evasion: evasion of responsibility, of blame, and of the hard choices Israel faces. Despite the horror of October 7 occurring under his watch, Netanyahu has neither taken responsibility nor offered a public apology, unlike former IDF Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi, who took responsibility and resigned. At Nir Oz, the kibbutz that suffered the worst during the Hamas massacre, where 117 of its 400 residents were murdered or kidnapped, it took Netanyahu 636 days to visit. When he finally did, he was met with open hostility.

Under Netanyahu’s watch, Israel has suffered damage to its global standing, becoming increasingly diplomatically isolated. The inflammatory rhetoric and provocative behaviour of his ministers, namely Ben-Gvir and Smotrich, coupled with Netanyahu's handling of the war in Gaza, have strained relations even with close allies. This was evident in France’s recent pledge to recognise a Palestinian state, an unprecedented move that Opposition Leader Yair Lapid said could have been avoided by “a functioning government doing basic diplomatic work”.

While alienating allies abroad, Netanyahu has simultaneously been purging critics at home. His ousting of Yuli Edelstein over the Haredi draft issue was not the beginning. Previously, he has also ousted Yoav Gallant, former Minister of Defence, over disagreements on the handling of the war. Netanyahu also moved to fire Ronen Bar, former Shin Bet head and critic of the Prime Minister, with Bar ultimately resigning. Now, Netanyahu has Gali Baharav-Miara, the Attorney General, in his sights, moving to fire her from her position. In Netanyahu’s Israel, no critic is safe: not defence ministers, not intelligence chiefs, not legal authorities. All are expendable in the service of one man’s political survival. Netanyahu's coalition currently governs without a majority, holding 60 of the 120 seats in the Knesset. Just how far he is willing to politic and bargain to stay in power remains to be seen.

In 1996, during a White House meeting, King Hussein of Jordan reportedly turned to Netanyahu and said, “You don’t have the maturity to be a leader, you’re not like Rabin… You have to grow up and become a leader, and you’re not one today”. Nearly three decades later, that assessment still holds. Instead of standing for what is right, for what is best for Israel, Netanyahu has chosen to empower zealots, appease allies, and oversee the deepening fracture of an already scarred society. With his loyalists behind him, Netanyahu walks into the abyss, dragging the nation with him.