Former Israeli prime minister Naftali Bennett on Sunday unveiled a sweeping legislative proposal aimed squarely at Israel’s most volatile political and societal fault line: military service and the government’s push to advance a draft-exemption law for chareidim.
Bennett announced what he termed the “servicemembers’ law,” a comprehensive benefits package for soldiers and reservists that he framed as both a moral corrective and an economic reset. The proposal comes as the current coalition continues efforts to legislate broad exemptions for the chareidi public, a move that has drawn intense backlash amid the ongoing war and unprecedented strain on Israel’s reserve forces.
“From today, those who serve are at the top, and those who choose to evade service are at the bottom,” Bennett declared, immediately placing his initiative on a collision course with the chareidi community and the Torah world.
Bennett, who formally reentered politics last year after registering a new party, is widely viewed as the most formidable potential challenger to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the next national election. He made clear that the proposed law would be nonnegotiable. “This will be the flagship law of the next government,” Bennett said, adding that any party seeking to join a coalition under his leadership would be required to support it.
According to Bennett, the legislation is designed to fundamentally reorder national priorities: expanding benefits for those who serve in the IDF, cutting off state support for those who do not, and creating financial incentives meant, in his words, to drive chareidim into military service.
“This law will cause massive numbers of chareidi youths to join the IDF,” Bennett asserted, a claim met with deep skepticism across the yeshivah world, where limud haTorah is viewed as a national and spiritual obligation that cannot be measured in economic terms.
Bennett stressed that IDF soldiers and reservists do not serve for financial gain. “We serve in the IDF out of a sense of mission and love for our country, and we will continue to serve under any circumstances regardless of economic conditions,” he said. Nonetheless, he argued that the proposed benefits are “essential economically, morally, and for uniting the nation.”
Under the plan, active reservists would receive government grants toward the purchase of a first home, subsidized childcare, and ongoing assistance with utility bills for as long as they continue reserve service. Soldiers who complete mandatory service would be eligible for fully funded undergraduate degrees—an entitlement currently limited largely to combat soldiers—while combat troops would also receive full funding for master’s degrees. Additional benefits would include childcare assistance and subsidized public transportation.
Those who do not serve, Bennett said bluntly, “won’t receive anything.”
The former prime minister claimed the initiative would be financed by reallocating approximately NIS 25 billion (about $7.9 billion) that he alleges is currently directed toward “draft dodgers and coalition handouts.” He insisted the funding sources are concrete and identifiable. “This money exists,” Bennett said. “I built the servicemembers’ bill with people who were in the Budget Department and the Housing Ministry and know exactly where these billions are now.”
Bennett further claimed that the legislation would ultimately inject more than NIS 100 billion into the Israeli economy—funds he argued are currently “being wasted because of draft evasion.”
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16 Responses
This rasha should share the fate of the Yevonim together with his Frei wife.
Does this include the Arabs???
Does this include the tens of thousands secular draft dodgers???
As Rav Hirsh Shlita said: YOU ARE FIGHTING WITH THE TORAH AND THE ONE WHO GAVE IT!!!
The opposition have NOTHING to show but their hatred of the chareidim. In that they are competing each other in the hope to become next prime minister – THIS IS THE STATE OF THE NON-STATE OF ZIONIST ISRAEL!
The Kippa wearing moose!
Most or many of the Mizrachi kehilot agree with him. They say that they lost over 600 טייערע קינדערלעך in this war. Our boys also Chareidim and learn and are committed to Torah; why just our boys have to go and not those with a more Yeshivish לבוש?
he’s just as frei
frei as lapid
they’re both fried
and they’ll be toast soon
What a religious man we have here. Oh right his mother had a reform conversion in America but still considers himself Jewish
RebEmes ..emes means not lying. There was a rabbi that made your claim he lost a lawsuit and had to pay 40000 shekels in damages. Check out your information before quoting others. His mother is NOT a convert. But, motzi shem ra beshogeg is still an issur.
“Those who do not serve, Bennett said bluntly, won’t receive anything.”
What about Palestinians holding Israeli citizenship? What about secular Israelis of Jewish descent who don’t serve in the military?
Will Israel make exception for conscientious objectors, which includes all anti-zionist hareidim who now are exempted on the pretext they are too busy learning.
Rav Shach ztl once said there would come a time when they will try to put all the bochurim into the army, and then the only thing to do will be to send all of them out of the country. Sounds like it’s time to start preparing for that. The Brisker Rav, ztl, said that whenever there are gezeiros against Torah, the underlying source of the gezeira lies not with them but with us and it’s only our weakness in crucial aspects of Torah that gives them the power to make those gezeiros. I’ve heard that some Roshei Yeshivos are saying things along the lines of the following: the real spiritual source of source of these gezeiros is the machlokesim and sinas chinam (with the resultant lashon horo) within the Torah world, or another possible source might that the Torah world isn’t doing enough to reach out to tinokos she’nishbu to show them what Torah has to offer them, and also to do genuine acts of chessed to them. Without meaning to defend Bennet and others like him, IMHO we have to realize that they are only sticks in Hashem’s Hand, and rather than spend our energies on biting the sticks, try to understand what messages Hashem is trying to get across to us through His use of them.
Still recall how the idolaters were so excited to report that this heretic was photographed putting on Tefillin when he was their dear leader.
Rebemes.. did you verify if what you said is true? Last person that made that claim was sued in Israel and lost in court and had to pay damages. If you have facts to prove your point bring them.
Does he still wear his soda bottle cap yarmulkah?
Why the outrage? He does not seem to support any force, nobody will be arrested, do I understand it right? He is proposing:
1) financial incentives for soldiers – who would argue with that, except most anti-Z Zealots?
2) no incentives for those who do not serve? How is this an issue for those who are willing to learn lishmah? Anyone in the country, and outside, can support that learning with volunteer donations. This worked for hundreds of years in EY. Why should yeshiva learners force others to provide them subsidies using non-religious tax authorities to collect?! we can still collect within those who are willing to support.
please show respect for the next Prime Minister of Israel. The problem is that Hareidim have limited to no education to contribute to the Israeli economy. Never in history were there as many mediocre or less talmidim sitting and learning; still gedolim production is almost non-existent.
Thinknow- I know exactly who was sued and he had evidence from the American ceremonial database. The information bothered Bennett enough because it was true so he took it to court. The thing is you’re not going to get a leftist judge in Tel Aviv from the most corrupt system on Earth to take a rabbi’s side in anything in life, he wouldn’t even look at the evidence and he immediately ruled in favor of Bennett. That’s not how a court case works. The rabbi’s lawyer even told him you lost before it even started because there’s no way there making a former prime minister lose even no matter what you bring. So the doubt is still there and someone who is so wicked and so against religious people and learning it doesn’t shock me that his background is questionable
Always_Ask_Questions: 1.The Israelis have along tradition of relying on virtually unpaid soldiers who are conscripted. Switching an American style professional army, which relies on financial incentives as well as patriotism, would solve the problem. 2. Non-Zionist yeshiva students are not support by grants from the government. Accepting government money is arguably the dividing line in the frum community between zionists and non-zionists. Exempting those who are ideological non-zionists on grounds they are conscientious objectors would solve much of the problem though it would require the Israelis to acknowledge the existence of strong Torah arguments against the Medinah, and the war it got itself into for the last 80 years.
I fully support this idea, with two caveats:
1. As part of this reform there should be military yeshivos established, with thousands of vacancies, where soldiers will be assigned to sit and learn in uniform and under military discipline. The mashgiach will be an officer with the power to send a soldier to the brig for being late to seder, or for batteling, instead of battling with the sugya. Likewise there should be divisions of tehillim-zoggers, whose assignment is to say tehillim and daven all day.
As happens currently, anyone joining the army indicates a preference for which units they would like to serve in. One wants to be a paratrooper, one wants to be a computer programmer, one wants to be a tank driver, etc. Likewise a recruit should be able to ask for an assignment to a yeshiva, where his duty will be to learn Torah all day, or to say tehillim.
This would count as full military service. Not as someone who evaded service but as someone who served.
2. Concurrently with this conscription should be abolished. Anyone should be free to say I will not serve and I will not get any benefits at all. Go further and make the right to vote one of the benefits, as Robert Heinlein described 70 years ago. All the Tzfonim who don’t want to serve can make that choice; likewise the Arabs. But they will give up the vote and all the benefits. If they want to vote and receive benefits, they must volunteer to join up, and accept whatever assignment they get. Just as a charedi boy may be told we need you more in a tank than in the yeshiva, a Tzfoni may be told we need you davka in a yeshiva where you will start from Chumash like a first grader.
With these additions, this is a great plan.