Jerusalem (Reuters)-The Ultra-Orthodox Party of the Shas announced on Wednesday to leave its government positions but remain for the moment within the Coalition of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, offering him a respite to agree on the exemption from military service of ultra-Orthodox Jewish students.
This question, no long -standing litigation, has already pushed another religious training, the unified Judaism party of the Torah (UTJ), to announce this week earlier its complete withdrawal of the government coalition, weakening the parliamentary majority available to Benjamin Netanyahu.
If he also made the decision to leave the government, the Shas party declared on Wednesday that it would however continue to support it at the Knesset, where the majority of the coalition is only a seat since the departure of the UTJ.
This allows Benjamin Netanyahu to avoid the threat of early elections for the time being and to keep his ability to have a possible cease-fire agreement approved by his security firm.
Shas’ representatives “noted with the heavy heart that they could not stay in government,” it was written in a party statement, which said that they are thus protesting the lifting of the exemption from military service which so far benefited the ultra-Orthodox Jewish students.
No comments were immediately made by Benjamin Netanyahu or by the other parties of an increasingly divided government coalition.
The Knesset summer holidays, lasting three months from July 27, offer the Prime Minister an additional period to try to reach an agreement on military service, a question that deeply divides Israeli society.
In the rows of the coalition, priorities diverge. If the Ultra-Orthodox parties express their anger about conscription, the far-right training courses, for their part, press Benjamin Netanyahu to make no dealerships with regard to the war in Gaza and indirect negotiations with Hamas.
The Minister of National Security, Itamar Ben-Gvir, and the Minister of Finance, Belazel Smotrich, both from the far right, insist that Israel continues his military campaign in the Palestinian territories.
However, it seems possible for Benjamin Netanyahu to have potential cease-fire agreement approved for the Gaza Strip without the vote of these two ministers.
Additional sign of divisions within the coalition, the Shas called on Wednesday the Prime Minister to do “everything that is in his power” to achieve an agreement with Hamas.
(Manyan Lubell et Emily Rose; a Jean Terzian franchise)
