Lapid slams Netanyahu alliance with far-right religious parties

Lapid warns against appeasing extremists

Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid on Saturday launched a scathing attack on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's alliance with far-right religious parties, warning that extremists exploit democratic mechanisms to dismantle democratic institutions and calling for a broad coalition to bar them from government.

Writing on the social media platform X, Lapid stated that accommodating radicals serves no purpose. “There is no point in drawing closer to extremists, trying to reach agreements with them or appeasing them, because they do not appreciate goodwill,” he said, adding that militants recognize only the pursuit of power and warning that those who enable them ultimately become their first victims.

Netanyahu's alliance with far-right parties

Lapid directed particular criticism at Netanyahu's relationship with National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, leader of the far-right Jewish Power party, asserting that the prime minister had believed he could control the controversial minister but had instead found himself captive to extremist demands.

“But what happened? Who ultimately controlled whom? What laws did they enact, and what policies did they implement? Not because they are geniuses, but because they are extremists,” Lapid said, arguing that someone must close the door in their faces and tell them clearly that such views have no place in government. He insisted that only a determined alliance refusing all concessions could stop their advance.

Knesset dissolution and religious exemption law

The remarks came one day after the Israeli Knesset voted to dissolve itself, scheduling general elections for October 27 in which Netanyahu seeks to retain power while opposition parties aim to remove him and his allies from office. Days before its dissolution, the parliament granted final approval to the Basic Law on Torah Study, conferring special legal status upon students at Jewish religious seminaries known as yeshivas.

The legislation could strengthen the position of ultra-Orthodox Jews before the Supreme Court and pave the way for future laws exempting them from compulsory military service, according to the Israeli daily Yedioth Ahronoth. The newspaper reported that Netanyahu and ultra-Orthodox parties had agreed to support legislation serving mutual interests, including measures freezing the arrest of draft evaders in exchange for backing bills curtailing media freedom and the attorney general's powers.

Ultra-Orthodox military service controversy

Haredim comprise approximately 13 percent of Israel's population of more than 10 million and have historically rejected military conscription on the grounds that full-time Torah study preserves their religious identity, viewing integration into secular society as an existential threat to their community.

For decades, Haredi men received repeated deferments from service at age 18 until reaching the exemption age of 26, but Israel's Supreme Court ruled in 2024 that the community must be drafted into the military and ordered the suspension of state funding for religious institutions whose students refuse enlistment.