BICOM

Yesh Atid leader Yair Lapid yesterday vowed that his party would only join a government which institutes a universal draft that would require ultra-Orthodox Israelis to perform military or civilian national service.

At a press conference in Tel Aviv, Lapid said “Whoever forms the next government needs to know… We will not be part of a government that will not enlist the ultra-Orthodox and get them into the job market,” explaining “Everyone should enlist. To military service, or to civilian service. And everyone should study the core curriculum, and everyone should work.”

Last February, Israel’s Supreme Court ruled that a law which granted sweeping exemptions from military or national service to ultra-Orthodox Israelis was unconstitutional. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced that the Knesset would pass a more equitable law within months, but the committee established to formulate such legislation was disbanded in July.

Lapid said that Netanyahu “panicked and fled” rather than pass a new law, while he also berated Labour Party leader Shelly Yachimovich for “avoiding the issue” and Jewish Home leader Naftali Bennett for his “deceptive solutions” to the problem.

Lapid’s condition would effectively rule Yesh Atid out of joining the same coalition government as ultra-Orthodox parties including Shas and United Torah Judaism, which stringently oppose a universal draft. This potentially leaves Netanyahu, who is likely to form the next government in a position of having to choose between the two. In a statement yesterday, Hatnuah leader Tzipi Livni appeared to indicate that she too shared Lapid’s stance, saying that her party will not sit in “a government of right-wing extremists and ultra-Orthodox,” highlighting the need to “fight for equality in the [military and national service] burden.”