The Draft Law – What Suddenly Happened?

Yossi Baum | X | May 25, 2026

Screengrab via X

Commentary:

The Haredi opposition now to the draft law does not come from a political background. On the contrary. On the political level, the current law could not restore the situation to the status quo that existed upto recent years (which was its original purpose at the time the coalition agreement was signed), but only minimize damages.

Rather, as a result of this “damage minimization,” the Haredim would, in their view, absorb other damages by agreeing to clauses that were far worse than the situation that existed until the current term (without getting into the value-based discussion at the moment from a purely political standpoint, so that even the justification that existed for the law until about a year ago dissipated).

The real reason is not connected to the composition of the coalition but to its essence: the failure on the reform front. Those responsible for stalling the law and neutered it throughout the entire process were the legal advisers to the government, to the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, to the Knesset, and so on. These are things that were mostly introduced in the past year, not something that existed before. And this made the law not worthwhile.

Note that the sharper opposition in recent weeks is being led specifically by Rabbi Hirsch, who by all accounts is considered more moderate and whose household has excellent ties with the Prime Minister’s Office. Meaning, there is no political motivation here, but rather it is a purely substantive matter. Rabbi Hirsch — incidentally — has been expressing this opinion consistently for three months (as attached), not that someone suddenly decided to “come after” Netanyahu.

The problem is that Netanyahu neglected managing the reform in order to concentrate on security and statesmanship (justifiably, from his perspective). But in the meantime, the Left undermined him and brought him to a situation where even the security and diplomatic fronts are in great doubt – because of the judicial front.

Let us very much hope that he can turn the clock back. The problem is extremely complex, and on its face seems very far from a solution.