Israel’s Yashar party leader Gadi Eisenkot and Yisrael Beiteinu party leader Avigdor Lieberman agreed to negotiate with ultra-Orthodox parties to form the next government, despite disagreements over military service exemptions, Israeli media reported Monday.
Eisenkot and Lieberman agreed during a meeting Monday to “exhaust all avenues of negotiation with the ultra-Orthodox parties before turning to the option of forming an alternative government,” according to Channel 13.
Eisenkot asked Lieberman to assist him in talks with the parties and seek to reach understandings with them, the channel added.
The agreement means postponing the option of forming a minority government with the support of Arab parties until the outcome of negotiations with the ultra-Orthodox parties becomes clear, the report said, adding that talks between Eisenkot and the ultra-Orthodox United Torah Judaism party have already begun,.
Separately, Israel’s public broadcaster quoted unnamed officials from United Torah Judaism as saying that the party was interested in negotiating with the “Change Bloc” but had not yet received an official call.
The Haredim are ultra-Orthodox Jews whose political parties’ main demands include maintaining exemptions from military service for students at religious seminaries and protecting their religious institutions and financial allocations.
They are represented in the Knesset by two main parties: United Torah Judaism, which primarily represents ultra-Orthodox Jews of European (Ashkenazi) descent and holds seven seats, and Shas, which mainly represents ultra-Orthodox Jews of Middle Eastern and Sephardic descent and holds six seats.
Together, the two parties hold 13 of the Knesset’s 120 seats — the number Eisenkot’s bloc, which has 48 seats, needs to reach a parliamentary majority of 61 if both parties join it in full.
The two parties belong to the camp of outgoing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
However, the latest election results have opened the door to efforts to bring them into an alternative coalition.
The conscription of ultra-Orthodox Jews remains one of the main obstacles to reaching an agreement, as their parties insist on maintaining military service exemptions, while parties in the “Change Bloc” are calling for broader conscription.
Lieberman, who is known for opposing exemptions for ultra-Orthodox Jews from military service, has meanwhile expressed a willingness to make concessions on the issue to form a government without Netanyahu.
However, he said Sunday that his readiness to compromise did not mean abandoning the principle of service for all or crossing red lines.
Lieberman said a conscription bill he proposed in 2018 could serve as a basis for reaching understandings.
In this context, the Hebrew-language Channel 12 reported that the ultra-Orthodox parties had set four conditions for supporting a government led by Eisenkot, the most prominent of which was issuing a temporary order suspending the conscription of ultra-Orthodox Jews.
The conditions also include suspending the arrest of draft evaders while the order is in effect, imposing no penalties on them during that period, and securing approval for the proposed arrangement from both the government’s legal adviser and the legal adviser to the Knesset’s Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee.
These demands reflect the scale of the differences Eisenkot and Lieberman must overcome to reach a coalition agreement with the ultra-Orthodox parties.
If negotiations with the ultra-Orthodox parties fail, Eisenkot could still form a minority government comprising the four parties in the Jewish opposition bloc, which together hold 48 seats, and rely on support from Arab parties outside the coalition.
Arab parties hold 19 seats, bringing the total number of seats on which such an arrangement could rely to 67.
However, this option faces opposition within the “Change Bloc” particularly from Lieberman, who has announced his rejection of a government that depends on support from Arab parties.
On Sunday evening, Israeli President Isaac Herzog formally handed Eisenkot the mandate to form a government after he received recommendations from 67 lawmakers compared with 46 for Netanyahu.
Seven lawmakers abstained from recommending either candidate.
Under Israeli law, Eisenkot has 28 days to form a coalition, with the possibility of a 14-day extension at the president’s discretion.