Netanyahu is under increasing political pressure as the coalition party pulls out
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is under more political pressure now that a major religious party quits his ruling alliance over a long-running dispute over the military draft. He is left with only the opposition party.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is under more political pressure after a major religious party quit his ruling alliance over a long-running disagreement about the military draft. He now only has a narrow majority in parliament.
Overnight, six lawmakers from the United Torah Judaism (UTJ) party turned in letters of resignation from their jobs in government offices and parliamentary committees. This was done as a protest against the government’s failure to keep ultra-Orthodox religious students from having to serve in the military.
After UTJ left, Netanyahu’s government became less stable, and there are growing worries that Shas, another ultra-Orthodox party that worked with UTJ, may also leave. If that happened, the government would lose all of its support in parliament.
The resignations will take effect in 48 hours, which doesn’t give Netanyahu much time to fix the problem that has been plaguing his government for months. But parliament isn’t meeting again until the end of July for the summer, so the prime minister might still have three months to work on stabilizing his coalition before there is a real threat to his rule.
Right-wing groups in Netanyahu’s government are also putting pressure on him because of the current peace talks with Hamas. Israel and the Palestinian terrorist group are having talks in Qatar that are meant to stop fighting in Gaza for 60 days. The agreement would free half of the remaining hostages held by Hamas and make it easier for humanitarian help to get to the area. It would also set the stage for larger talks about ending the war.
Ministers from the far right, Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich, are against any ceasefire and say Israel should keep up its military activities. Even so, Netanyahu is thought to have enough support from his government to get a truce approved even if they don’t agree with him.
A close aide to Netanyahu, Topaz Luk, told Army Radio on Tuesday, “As soon as the right deal is on the table, the prime minister will be able to get it through.”
