Israeli opposition slams Netanyahu silence after ultra-Orthodox army slur

Israeli opposition leaders on Tuesday accused Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government of maintaining "complete silence" following inflammatory remarks by ultra-Orthodox rabbis who denounced the military as a corrupting force during demonstrations in Bnei Brak against compulsory conscription. Addressing hundreds of protesters gathered Monday night to oppose the detention of draft refusers, Rabbi Aryeh Yezdi urged religious seminary students to resist enlistment, stating: "The army teaches people to commit the gravest sins in this impure state. This entire army exists to desecrate the name of God." He also directed vitriol at Israeli Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir, declaring that "May the name of the accursed chief of staff be erased from memory... Do not fall into this trap. Do not join the army."

Former Sephardic Chief Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef told the crowd the gathering aimed to protest judicial authorities and "oppressive authorities," arguing that imprisoning yeshiva students insults Torah scholarship. Rabbi Shabtai Levy asserted that Israel has failed to defeat Hamas and Hezbollah because the Torah is not being respected, linking military setbacks to religious neglect. The demonstrations follow a June 2024 Supreme Court ruling that ended exemptions for ultra-Orthodox men, requiring their conscription and threatening funding cuts for religious institutions whose students refuse service.

Opposition leaders denounce 'government of cowards'

Opposition leader Yair Lapid criticized the prime minister on the social media platform X, writing: "The Haredim are inciting against our fighters, spilling the blood of the Chief of Staff. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his ministers are silent as fish. Not a word of condemnation, not a single arrest warrant for incitement to violence. Our soldiers are heroes; this government is a heap of cowards." Netanyahu depends on ultra-Orthodox parties to maintain his parliamentary majority and faces an International Criminal Court warrant issued in 2024 for alleged war crimes in Gaza. Former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett threatened to cut state salaries for clerics who denounce the state, noting that Rabbi Yezdi receives substantial government pay and promising that "In the next government, we'll put an end to this." Former Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman labeled the rally a "national disgrace" engineered by a "draft-dodger government" sacrificing military readiness for political survival.

Presidential intervention and draft exemption crisis

Israeli President Isaac Herzog also intervened, condemning the rhetoric in a post on X and stating that "even in times of deep discord, there is no place for curses, insults, or degrading language, certainly not when it comes to the supreme commander of the IDF and of our soldiers." The controversy erupted as the Israeli military faces manpower shortages across multiple fronts, including Gaza and Lebanon, following the Supreme Court's June 2024 decision that struck down decades-old exemptions allowing ultra-Orthodox men to defer service indefinitely through religious study.