Naftali Bennett’s Bayit Yehudi party denied Sunday morning a Saturday night report on Israel’s Channel 10 television that it had reached an agreement with Yair Lapid’s Yesh Atid party on an outline of changes in regulations regarding the induction of haredi-religious yeshiva students into the Israel Defense Forces.
The party said the two sides were still working on an outline and would continue to hold discussions on the subject.
"Habayit Hayehudi will see to it that the outline being formulated does not apply to yeshivas that encourage enlistment, like the Hesder yeshivas and the high Zionist yeshivas. They will not be harmed," the party said in a statement.
According to the Channel 10 report, the proposal would impose a quota on the number of yeshiva students who are exempt from army service.
However, instead of 400 exemptions as Lapid has demanded, the quota would be extended to 1,500 to 2,000 students.
In addition, the outline calls for the draft for hareidim to be deferred until the age of 21 at the latest.
The hareidi parties have repeatedly stated that they will not agree to a limit on the amount of exemptions for yeshiva students, so if Bennett and Lapid persist in their positions, it is unlikely that they will be able to bridge the gap with the haredim, making it nearly impossible for all parties to form a coalition.