Former Israeli prime minister Naftali Bennett on Sunday unveiled a sweeping legislative proposal aimed squarely at Israel’s most volatile political and societal fault line: military service and the government’s push to advance a draft-exemption law for chareidim.

Bennett announced what he termed the “servicemembers’ law,” a comprehensive benefits package for soldiers and reservists that he framed as both a moral corrective and an economic reset. The proposal comes as the current coalition continues efforts to legislate broad exemptions for the chareidi public, a move that has drawn intense backlash amid the ongoing war and unprecedented strain on Israel’s reserve forces.

“From today, those who serve are at the top, and those who choose to evade service are at the bottom,” Bennett declared, immediately placing his initiative on a collision course with the chareidi community and the Torah world.

Bennett, who formally reentered politics last year after registering a new party, is widely viewed as the most formidable potential challenger to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the next national election. He made clear that the proposed law would be nonnegotiable. “This will be the flagship law of the next government,” Bennett said, adding that any party seeking to join a coalition under his leadership would be required to support it.

According to Bennett, the legislation is designed to fundamentally reorder national priorities: expanding benefits for those who serve in the IDF, cutting off state support for those who do not, and creating financial incentives meant, in his words, to drive chareidim into military service.

“This law will cause massive numbers of chareidi youths to join the IDF,” Bennett asserted, a claim met with deep skepticism across the yeshivah world, where limud haTorah is viewed as a national and spiritual obligation that cannot be measured in economic terms.

Bennett stressed that IDF soldiers and reservists do not serve for financial gain. “We serve in the IDF out of a sense of mission and love for our country, and we will continue to serve under any circumstances regardless of economic conditions,” he said. Nonetheless, he argued that the proposed benefits are “essential economically, morally, and for uniting the nation.”

Under the plan, active reservists would receive government grants toward the purchase of a first home, subsidized childcare, and ongoing assistance with utility bills for as long as they continue reserve service. Soldiers who complete mandatory service would be eligible for fully funded undergraduate degrees—an entitlement currently limited largely to combat soldiers—while combat troops would also receive full funding for master’s degrees. Additional benefits would include childcare assistance and subsidized public transportation.

Those who do not serve, Bennett said bluntly, “won’t receive anything.”

The former prime minister claimed the initiative would be financed by reallocating approximately NIS 25 billion (about $7.9 billion) that he alleges is currently directed toward “draft dodgers and coalition handouts.” He insisted the funding sources are concrete and identifiable. “This money exists,” Bennett said. “I built the servicemembers’ bill with people who were in the Budget Department and the Housing Ministry and know exactly where these billions are now.”

Bennett further claimed that the legislation would ultimately inject more than NIS 100 billion into the Israeli economy—funds he argued are currently “being wasted because of draft evasion.”

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)

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