Degel Hatorah moves to dissolve Knesset over draft
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- Rabbi Dov Lando, spiritual leader of Degel Hatorah, gave the green light to work toward dissolving the Knesset 'as soon as possible,' writing in a letter to party MKs that 'We no longer have trust in Netanyahu' and that bloc politics 'no longer exist'
- Degel Hatorah threatened to dissolve the Knesset after Netanyahu informed the haredi party there is no coalition majority to pass the controversial conscription bill, prompting a crisis in which chairman Moshe Gafni refused calls from the Prime Minister's Office
- Opposition parties — Yesh Atid, Yisrael Beytenu, the Democrats, and Ra'am — all stated support for bringing a dissolution bill; opposition leader Yair Lapid called for preparations to begin as early as next week
- FADC chairman MK Boaz Bismuth (Likud), who has been leading the draft bill, pushed back hard, declaring 'the law is ready and can be advanced as early as tomorrow' and urging haredim not to 'throw the baby out with the bathwater'
- Otzma Yehudit, led by National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, also called for the coalition not to break up, stating 'this government still has several tasks to carry out'
- Elections are currently scheduled for no later than October, but haredi parties reportedly sought to move the date up to September before the Jewish high holidays, a change Netanyahu opposed; dissolution could force an earlier vote
- The haredi conscription bill has drawn criticism as legislation designed to appease coalition partners rather than increase enlistment, even as the IDF has repeatedly warned of urgent manpower shortages after more than two years of war
Why it matters: With all four opposition factions formally backing dissolution and Degel Hatorah's spiritual leader publicly declaring 'no trust' in Netanyahu, the coalition has fractured over a conscription bill critics say won't increase enlistment. If the Knesset is dissolved, elections now scheduled for no later than October could move up to September, ending the government mid-war and forcing a new coalition to confront the IDF's stated manpower crisis.
