A high-stakes meeting between chareidi representatives and the Knesset’s legal adviser, Sagit Afik, ended in a dramatic breakdown Wednesday evening, as negotiations over the proposed draft law failed to yield any agreement.
According to a participant in the meeting, the discussion reached a dead end. “We feel like there’s no one to talk to,” the source said. Former minister Ariel Atias, who has been spearheading the draft law talks on behalf of the chareidi parties, stormed out of the room in anger.
At the heart of the dispute is the insistence by Afik and the legal adviser to the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee that the new law must include immediate and significant enforcement measures against draft dodgers beginning the day the law is passed. They are also demanding a gradual implementation of enforcement mechanisms over time.
The chareidi factions, however, are pushing for a more lenient formulation that would avoid penalizing full-time lomdei Torah.
In a last-ditch attempt to prevent the dissolution of the Knesset, Shas chairman Aryeh Deri held a lengthy meeting earlier in the day with Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu in his Yerushalayim office.
Despite the mounting tensions, Likud officials insisted that the bill to dissolve the Knesset would not be brought to a vote tonight.
{Matzav.com Israel}