Shas Party chairman Aryeh Deri said on Tuesday that if legislation exempting ultra-Orthodox men from military service is not passed in the next two months, Israel will head to new elections.

Speaking to the ultra-Orthodox Kol BaRama radio station, Deri said that “The right has never excelled politically; the right has always toppled the right. Coalition heads and the prime minister are determined to regulate the status of the Torah scholars. They have two months to settle it; this is the test. If it’s not settled—we’ll go to elections.”

Deri’s ultimatum aligns with the 2025 state budget that, according to law, must be passed by the end of March to avoid triggering early elections.

The Shas leader further criticized national-religious sector parties, saying that they had jumped on a “hate campaign” against the Haredim that was originally initiated by the left.

“The enemy of the right has always been the right, which overthrew the governments of the right because of short-sightedness, and this repeats itself every time, unfortunately,” he added.

Deri went on to push back against accusations that the ultra-Orthodox coalition parties have supported the Israel-Hamas ceasefire as part of a political deal that will exempt Haredim from conscription.

“This is an absolute lie,” he said, adding that pidyon nefashot, the redemption of captives, is a known religious position of his party.

Who would have thought that “Torah scholars will be dubbed ‘criminals’?” Deri asked, referring to the heated public debate in Israel about the exemption of young Haredi men from military service, which has existed in law since Israel’s inception in 1948.

Israel’s Supreme Court ruled in June that following the expiry of the exemption law in 2023, the state must begin drafting ultra-Orthodox men. This put pressure on Israel’s political leadership to regulate the status of yeshiva students lest they face legal sanctions.

The Israel Defense Forces last week announced that it has initiated criminal proceedings against Haredi draft candidates who fail to report for enlistment.

Anyone “who does not report for enlistment in accordance with the order received will be considered as committing the offense of absence from service without permission and will face criminal sanctions,” the IDF said.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition has been deliberating on a new bill to address the draft issue, but according to Hebrew media reports, a consensus has not been reached.

Speaking to Israeli public broadcaster Kan on Wednesday, Knesset member Erez Malul (Shas) reaffirmed Deri’s threat to topple the government, saying, “In the case of a draft law, the government will lose its majority [vote]. The United Torah Judaism [Party] will not vote for the budget. [Otzma Yehudit leader Itamar] Ben-Gvir is in the opposition. How will [the budget] pass? This is not a threat, it’s an ultimatum,” he stressed.

Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, chairman of the Religious Zionism Party, told the Knesset plenum on Wednesday that if the coalition does not pass a draft law, the parliament will be dissolved.

“I hope we will succeed in passing a good draft law and also a budget. If God forbid we don’t, then I say to my Haredi brothers, we can decide to pass a budget and dissolve the Knesset,” he said.

The finance minister vowed that a budget will be approved due to the constraints of the war, but stressed that his party will not compromise on the issue of compelled enlistment.

“The military did not need [the Haredim] until now. [But] now it does. There’s no such thing as a ‘small and smart’ military—we need a large, smart, aggressive and lethal military … If we were willing to make concessions, there would have been a draft law a long time ago,” he continued.

Unnamed sources in United Torah Judaism told Ynet that “We are probably headed for [elections] and the government is going to dissolve. But if the finance minister thinks we will vote for the budget before elections without a draft law—that will of course not transpire.”

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