Former Israeli prime minister Naftali Bennett is intensifying the country’s already fraught debate over military conscription, insisting that state funding should be cut off to Chareidi yeshivos whose talmidim do not serve in the military.

“We will not fund a single shekel to those who don’t enlist,” Bennett said in a radio interview Monday.

Speaking on Maariv’s 103FM, Bennett argued that the IDF is short roughly 20,000 troops, a gap he said is straining operations and increasing risk to soldiers. “Draft evasion is costing us the lives of our soldiers,” he said, describing reservists as repeatedly redeployed and “worn down,” with diminished effectiveness over time.

Bennett took direct aim at Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, accusing him of enabling continued exemptions through a proposed plan to incentivize Chareidi enlistment. He also criticized coalition figures including Yitzchak Goldknopf and Aryeh Deri, as well as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, saying political considerations have been prioritized over military readiness.

At the center of Bennett’s proposal is a sweeping funding overhaul. He called for halting “dozens of money channels” that support yeshivos, and for conditioning state support on participation in national service. He also criticized educational frameworks that omit core subjects, saying the current model is incompatible with state priorities.

“There are 100,000 young, healthy Chareidim who could enlist,” Bennett said, arguing that even partial participation would materially close the manpower gap.

The former premier is pairing the policy push with an explicit political strategy. He said he intends to form what he calls a “Zionist government,” claiming he can assemble a 61-seat majority without Netanyahu’s bloc. Asked whether he would join a Netanyahu-led coalition after elections, Bennett dismissed the idea as “absurd.”

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)