Update 2: Coalition submits bill to dissolve Knesset and trigger elections within 5 months
Update: Likud attempts to control the terms of the dissolution of the govt.
Peloni: The consequences of these developments have been threatening the stability of the Netanyahu govt since its formation, and can in fact presage serious reshaping of the political spectrum. One thing is certain, though, the Left will pay the price which the Haredi parties are demanding so as to retake power, even if the Right wing govt does not. Herein lies the truth of all this.
PM Netanyahu said to favor regular elections set to take place at the end of October
| Published: May 13, 2026
US Ambassador Mike Huckabee meets with Rabbi Dov Landau. Screenshot via Youtube
Ultra-Orthodox (Haredi) leaders on Tuesday called to dissolve the Knesset and schedule slightly earlier elections, citing the coalition’s failure to legislate a new IDF draft law that would ensure broad exemptions from military service for yeshiva students.
The statements prompted requests by several opposition parties to expedite votes to dissolve parliament, though it remains unclear when such a vote would be scheduled or whether the opposition has the necessary support, since the other ultra-Orthodox party, Shas, has yet to signal its position on the issue.
Currently, regular elections are set to take place at the end of October.
The most significant statement came from Rabbi Dov Lando, spiritual leader of the Lithuanian ultra-Orthodox community and its affiliated party, Degel HaTorah, which is one part of the Haredi umbrella party, United Torah Judaism (UTJ).
“We have no trust in the prime minister. We no longer feel we are his partners. We are not committed to him,” Lando wrote in a statement published by affiliated party newspaper, Yated Ne’eman.
“From now on, we will do only what we believe is good for ultra-Orthodox Judaism, and in our opinion, elections should be held as soon as possible,” he wrote.
The Hamodia newspaper, which represents Agudat Yisrael, the Hasidic part of UTJ, wrote that “all components of UTJ agree there is no chance Likud will uphold its commitment to regulate the status of Torah students and will act to dissolve the Knesset.”
The new clash was reportedly triggered after associates of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told Haredi representatives that a new IDF draft law would not be passed by the current government.
According to Channel 13 News, Lando called Netanyahu a “liar” for stringing the Haredi parties along for years with promises of a new law.
“We’ve had to suck it up time after time for the bloc [with Netanyahu], but they don’t understand. No more words from Netanyahu, only actions. Even if Netanyahu comes to me now and tells me one plus one equals two, I won’t believe him anymore. He is a conman,” Lando was quoted as saying.
Despite the dramatic remarks, the government is not expected to collapse immediately.
Dissolving the Knesset requires a simple majority of 61 out of 120 Knesset members in four separate votes. The earliest possible date for an election is in August. Haredi parties are reportedly aiming for September, the month of Elul and the period of Selichot prayers, which they believe will help boost voter turnout.
Netanyahu reportedly wants to delay the elections for as long as possible, hoping to strengthen his position by gaining more decisive outcomes in the fighting in Lebanon and Gaza, as well as a likely future round of the war with Iran.
According to Ynet News, other coalition partners have warned the prime minister that this would cause the campaign to overlap with the High Holidays, endangering election integrity by delaying the counting of mail votes, the response to appeals and additional checks.
Earlier this week, IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Eyal Zamir reiterated his warning that the IDF urgently needs more soldiers to handle all of its challenges. The military said it needs approximately 12,000 new recruits, most of them combat troops.
Currently, an estimated 80,000 ultra-Orthodox men aged 18 to 24 are eligible for military service but have not enlisted.
At the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee on Sunday, Zamir said, “I do not deal with political or legislative processes. I deal with a multi-front war and defeating the enemy. To keep doing that, the IDF needs more soldiers immediately.”
Bennett’s new party is a coalition of sorts called in Hebrew (B’Yachad) or Together. We will see what it will be the end. It is Bennett (right wing), Lapid (Center) and some others. We will see if Eisenkot’s party joins. If it joins it likely will be the largest party in the Knesset.
Bennett’s stated goals will appeal to a wide segment of Israelis:
1. Write Constitution
2. Find a way to get more Haredi participation in the military
3. Create a unified education system in Israel
4. Have a National Official Independent Inquiry of October 7, 2023
Too soon to know what will happen but it should be interesting.
@Rafi
Yes indeed.
Naftali Bennett has had it with Haredim not serving in the IDF so if the Ultra Orthodox want to throw Netanyahu and Likud under the bus, they may not be happy about it.
As we saw in 2021, what Bennett says before the election and what he does after the election are not exactly aligned. More relevant than this, the Right and the Left are polar opposites, so if they are unable to mend fences and find middle ground, which seems unlikely at this stage, the choice for both the Right and the Left will be to support the Haredi parties or the Arabs. In other words, if the Right and the Left are each to be believed in eschewing the Haredi and Arabs, they will have to compromise on issues which are more than material to both the Left and the Right. We will see many things develop in the coming weeks and months, as I noted previously, but the many moving parts which I previously referenced are about to be cut in stone, making it quite a relevant consideration as to whether you might believe the per-election protestations being offered by Bennett and all the other parties.
You could make long lists of what politicians say before elections and post-election alter. Including Bibi!! Bennett has acknowledged his mistake and said he will not replay it. I believe him because if nothing else it was a disaster and it did not benefit him either. If Smotrich had joined him then then Raam would have been unnecessary. If Bibi had let someone else lead the Likud and broad right-wing government would have ended leading the country.
@Rafi
What Bennett did could hardly be described as simply a mistake. Bennett cheated control from the Nationalist camp, and handed it to the Two State Solutionists and their Muslim Brotherhood associates. He allowed Gantz helped revive the PA even as they were still conducting pay for slay. He oversaw the ceding of the gas fields to Hezbollah, he paid Raam protection money to crack down on Arab violence as the limit of his response to Arabs joining Hamas in coordinated attacks on the streets of Israel for the first time. And these were just the most obvious sins he committed, all of which he committed while asserting to us all that he was ‘ten steps to the Right of Bibi’.
So I see his prior political moves as being far more than a mistake which could be easily answered with ‘sorry, I won’t do THAT again’.
Also, you seem to want to deflect by suggesting some guilt on part of Smotrich for not having joined Bennett in his embrace of the Left in forming a govt which opposed the principles of the Nationalist camp around Bennet himself rather than the principles on which Bennett ran.
This is all old news of course, so we should only use this as informative about what we might see from Bennett going forward. You suggest that he has learned a lesson and won’t sit with the Arabs, as if the Arabs were the only issue at hand in his previous govt of spare parts, as it were. Notably, yes, joining with the Muslim Brotherhood always looks bad on the resume, especially when Bennett is selling himself as more reliable, more credible, and more security oriented than Bibi. Still, the issue is greater than even this, even if you can accept that Bennett will not place personal ambitions over such redo’s as joining with Raam again. In fact, it took him altogether 5 days a couple of weeks ago before he literally jumped to join with his old Two State Solutionist pal Lapid, who was still voicing support for his idiocy in the wake of October 7 before someone finally got him to adopt a better strategy.
Speaking from the Right and the Nationalist camp, I find the inclusion of Lapid in any govt impossible to support, even if you could part him from his ideology which failed to be demonstrated in his last reign of horrors. Many may disagree with this view, and it seems perhaps you do as well. Well, isn’t it this sort of voicing various views that makes politics interesting and challenging. In any event, even if the Left comes to somehow, G_d forbid, form a govt following the next election, I seriously doubt Bennett will be leading. But let us hope that the Left never again retakes power, but for this we will have to wait and see…and hope and pray… a lot.