Netanyahu, in Podcast Interview: “Whoever Doesn’t Learn Torah Will Enlist — Or Go to Jail”

Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in an interview on political commentator Gadi Taub’s podcast “Shomer Saf” that the temporary law freezing arrests of yeshiva Bochrim didn’t succeed” and will not be renewed in the next government.

According to Netanyahu, “After the elections we will establish a broad national government that will immediately pass a full draft law that meets the IDF’s needs.” The prime minister added a pointed message regarding those not studying in yeshivas: “Whoever doesn’t learn Torah will enlist — or go to jail.”

The remarks came as Israel’s Supreme Court, sitting as a panel of nine justices, was hearing petitions against the constitutionality of the arrest-freeze law, which had frozen arrests of Charedi draft evaders until November 30.

Reactions came quickly. United Torah Judaism chairman MK Yitzhak Goldknopf said the comments “only confirm what was clear to us from the start — the prime minister has no intention of resolving the status of yeshiva students and does not plan to advance a draft law, which is why we left the government.” Yisrael party chairman Gadi Eisenkot criticized from the opposite direction: “Netanyahu continues to disrespect the public. The public won’t buy the new spin.”