Overview
- After clause-by-clause reviews and further consultations, Rabbi Moshe Hillel Hirsch gave Degel HaTorah MKs permission to keep negotiating and move the bill forward subject to amendments.
- Degel HaTorah says several clauses remain problematic and will be addressed in the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee before any final vote.
- The Knesset committee’s legal adviser is pressing for a first‑year recruitment target of about 5,700 and for biometric fingerprint attendance to remain in the bill to bolster legal defensibility.
- Coalition arithmetic is fragile, with Shas expected to align if Degel supports the draft while Agudas Yisroel is likely to split and MK Yitzchok Goldknopf signaling he will vote no.
- Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is pushing for passage within roughly a month as MKs including Sharren Haskel warn the coalition lacks a majority, and Yuli Edelstein publicly criticizes the plan.