Shas

Bismuth update to haredi draft bill sparks clashes at Knesset FADC meeting

Rayten stated that Bismuth’s sections of the draft were entirely different from Edelstein's outline on the conscription bill.

MK Boaz Bismuth at first meeting on new conscription bill since Edelstein ousting on August 12, 2025
 HAREDI YESHIVA students

Gov't approval of NIS 40 m. toward Shas school system to face legal obstacles - report 

MK Moshe Gafni in the Knesset plenum, in Jerusalem, December 4, 2024

Gafni urges Shas to open Sephardi schools, party responds amid renewed discrimination debate

 Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and MK Benny Gantz on the forefront of the Philadelphi Corridor (illustrative)

'Obvious’ Netanyahu won't break up right-wing bloc for Gantz, Likud source tells ‘Post’


Gov't to fund haredi draft dodgers' Rosh Hashanah pilgrimages to Uman, Ukraine

Opposition MKs Yair Lapid and Avigdor Liberman slammed the move, which allocates NIS 10m., as an irresponsible use of public funds, especially during a war.

 Jews in the streets of Uman, a day after the Jewish holiday of Rosh Hashanah, September 18, 2023.

Netanyahu an ‘atheist,’ former chief rabbi says, accusing IDF of targeting Sephardim

After a week of of demonstrations outside a military prison housing haredi detainees, former Sephardi chief rabbi slammed Netanyahu and Shas leader Arye Deri of stalling the haredi draft bill.

 Shas spiritual leader and former Sephardic chief rabbi, Yitzhak Yosef, seen during a weekly lecture at the Yazdim synagogue in Jerusalem, June 07, 2025; illustrative.

‘We want a draft law’: Bismuth leads first meeting on new conscription bill since Edelstein ousting

MK Boaz Bismuth opened the first meeting to discuss the haredi draft law since replacing MK Yuli Edelstein as Chairperson of the  Knesset’s Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee.

MK Boaz Bismuth at first meeting on new conscription bill since Edelstein ousting on August 12, 2025

Bismuth elected FADC head, ousting Edelstein over haredi draft bill

Edelstein, prior to the vote, published for the first time the draft of the conscription law, which was sent to committee members. 

MK Boaz Bismuth attends a Defense and Foreign Affairs Committee meeting at the Knesset, the Israeli parliament in Jerusalem July 8, 2025

Netanyahu temporarily appoints Levin and Katz to key ministries amid haredi resignations

The fact that the ministries were given to just Levin and Katz indicated that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu intends to “safeguard” them for the eventual possibility of Shas’s return.

Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu with Justice Minister Yariv Levin and Minister of Tourism Haim Katz during a discussion and a vote in the assembly hall of the Knesset, the Israeli parliament in Jerusalem, on February 22, 2023.

Bismuth elected new Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee head

Netanyahu announced that MK Hanoch Milwidsky will become ‘temporary’ Finance Committee head.

MK Boaz Bismuth attends a Defense and Foreign Affairs Committee meeting at the Knesset, the Israeli parliament in Jerusalem July 8, 2025

Netanyahu's Likud to remove Edelstein from key committee over haredi draft fallout

A replacement for Edelstein on the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee may be willing to make concessions that Edelstein was not willing to make, thus allowing the bill to proceed.

 Benjamin Netanyahu and Yuli Edelstein seen at the Knesset on November 4, 2021

Yuli Edelstein stands on principle for crafting conscription law for haredi population - editorial

Yosef’s words reveal the ugly truth behind the ultra-Orthodox parties’ opposition to military service: Is it actually about Torah study or religious obligation?

 Chairman of the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee MK Yuli Edelstein speaks at the Muni Expo 2025 conference in Tel Aviv, on July 15, 2025.

Will the Knesset recess open a window for a deal? Netanyahu’s political breathing room - analysis

The Knesset's upcoming recess will potentially give PM Benjamin Netanyahu time to broker a hostage deal and figure out a solution to the issue of the haredi draft law.

 Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Defense Minister Israel Katz, and National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir at a Knesset debate, July 14, 2025; illustrative.

National healing begins with a much needed change in politics - editorial

We may be naive, but at the same time truly believe that there is a small and important opportunity for change.

Even as Shas followed United Torah Judaism’s lead and declared on Wednesday it was leaving the government, it did so with a major caveat: ‘We are leaving the government, but we are not quitting the coalition.’ Here, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sits alongside Shas chairman Arye Deri in 2023.

‘Read my lips this gov't will not fall’: Israeli coalition faces crisis over haredi draft law

As Israel’s ruling coalition fractures over the Haredi Draft bill, religious parties threaten to quit, and pressure mounts from reservists, the government clings to a narrow majority.

 Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is seen speaking at the Knesset.