Attorney Alon Gellert was scheduled to represent the Kadima party and Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's confidant, attorney David Shimron, the Likud, Friday morning, as talks continued to develop a replacement to the Tal Law, which granted draft deferments to full-time Torah scholars, according to Israel Defense Forces Radio. The negotiations followed an hour-and-a-half meeting, Thursday evening, between Netanyahu and Kadima leader Shaul Mofaz.
The main issue on which the parties do not agree is the maximum age for exemption from the draft: Kadima is demanding that the exemption expire at age 23. The Likud is calling to keep the exemption until age 26.