Demonstration against drafting haredim
Demonstration against drafting haredimMeir Selah

After a marathon of discussions, a compromise has been proposed that will enable Agudat Yisrael to support the Draft Law, Israel Hayom reported.

According to the proposed compromise, the law will be slightly changed, such that instead of stating that if the haredim fail to meet the recruitment targets, the law will expire six years later, it will be written that the government will be entitled to determine appropriate recruitment targets in the law.

The text has not yet been finalized, but the principle that the law will not expire on its own will soon be brought to the attention of members of the Council of Torah Sages for approval. The coalition believes that the rabbis will approve the outline, which has already been approved by the defense establishment in principle. It is still unclear how Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman will respond to the proposal, but senior coalition officials believe that agreement will eventually be reached.

The report said that during a recent meeting of the Knesset's Draft Law Committee, headed by coalition chairman MK Amsalem (Likud), Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman was asked by MK Uri Maklev (UTJ) if he would be willing to soften the wording of the law so that it would not expire immediately in case of failure to meet recruitment targets, but would allow the government to set other targets.

His answer was positive. However, it is not certain that he will agree to the move. In the past, the defense minister said he would not agree to change the law "even one letter." However, coalition officials believe that there is a very reasonable chance, in their opinion, that Liberman will eventually adopt the proposal and allow approval of the bill.