Rav Dov Landau’s Statement Sends the Country into a Tizzy

The Israeli political world is in an uproar. While we projected last week that the next election will take place in half a year, on Tuesday, 16 Cheshvan 5787/October 27, 2026, the events of the end of the week changed everything. It all began with a statement issued by Rav Dov Landau, especially the instructions in his own handwriting that accompanied it. This reshuffled the deck and may have set the stage for sweeping change.

The biggest question at this moment is what the chareidi parties will do: Will they spearhead an initiative to move up the election, or will they leave the date of the election in place but act as if the current government does not exist? Then there is another question, although it concerns a scenario that doesn’t seem very realistic right now: What will happen if Netanyahu manages to have the draft law quickly passed at the beginning of the week? Will the chareidim return to business as usual? Will they even return to the government? (Remember, the chareidi ministers resigned from their positions in protest over the failure to pass a draft law.) The reason this seems unrealistic is that even Netanyahu might have no real interest in passing the law at this time. He might prefer to enter an election without having passed the draft law, which is bound to be one of the hot topics of the election campaign. On the other hand, he does have a good reason to pass the law immediately—so that the chareidi parties do not look for different partners after the election. Moreover, if he wants to pass the law in the coming days, he may encounter less resistance within the ranks of his own party. The Likud members are beginning to understand that their opposition to the draft law might lead to the fall of the right-wing government in the next election.

What grabbed the country’s attention in particular was Rav Landau’s declaration that the chareidim will no longer maintain their allegiance to the right-wing bloc. In the past, the chareidi parties worked with all their might to ensure that the political right would remain in power; that will no longer be true. Everyone began talking about the prospect of an early election as if it was sensational news, but let’s put things in perspective. For one thing, the opposition has no real reason to celebrate, since they aren’t really in the picture. If the government falls, it will have nothing to do with their efforts, and if the election is moved up, they will not be able to claim credit for it. They have no impact on these events. Another point, no less important, is that even if the election takes place earlier, it will be moved up only by a month or two; the difference isn’t all that dramatic.

This week, coalition members Ofir Katz (the coalition whip and a member of the Likud party), Uri Maklev, Yinon Azulai, Tzvika Fogel (of Ben-Gvir’s party), and Ohad Tal (also of Ben-Gvir’s party) submitted a bill to dissolve the Knesset. Let me repeat that: This bill came from members of the coalition. If an early election is inevitable, the coalition prefers to have it result from a bill they submit rather than one that comes from the opposition. This is a political move rather than a matter of public image; the coalition prefers to remain in control of every political measure.

An Election in Elul May Benefit the Religious Parties

As soon as the Knesset approves a bill for its own dissolution, the law determines the sequence of events that ensues. The bill may even pass this Wednesday, before Shavuos, given that the opposition has promised to introduce their own bills to dissolve the Knesset then, in the hope that they will receive the support of at least some of the chareidi representatives. Personally, however, I beg to differ with the confidence expressed by Lapid and company. I don’t think that any chareidi member of the Knesset will support the bill, at least to avoid supporting sinners. At the same time, the Likud might decide to bring its own bill to the Knesset for a vote, which would receive the support of the coalition. And if that happens, the government will enter a transitional period before the election. But while it is possible that this will occur on Wednesday, I would wager that it won’t happen all that fast. After all, there is no real rush. According to the timetable set forth in the law, the election will not be held before the end of Elul in any event. Therefore, the most we can expect is for the election to be advanced by about a month and a half.

For the chareidi parties, however, this difference in timing may make a very big difference. If the election is moved up to Tuesday, September 15, for instance, it will take place on the fourth of Tishrei, or the day after Tzom Gedaliah, in the middle of the Aseres Yemei Teshuvah. This would be an excellent development for the chareidi parties, especially the Shas party. It is a time when tens of thousands of Jews who are tempted to vote for all sorts of other parties come to the Kosel every night to recite Selichos, and it is certainly an excellent time for the chareidim to attract voters. Even if the election is moved up to September 1 or September 8, a week or two prior to the Aseres Yemei Teshuvah, it will still be taking place toward the end of Elul and just before Rosh Hashanah¸ when the Jewish spark and commitment to tradition within every Jew can more easily be rekindled. For the Shas party in particular, with its vast Sephardic voter base, this is an especially conducive time to attract undecided voters. The Likud party, meanwhile, has no objection to the chareidim receiving more votes on account of the election’s timing, but only on the condition that the right-wing bloc remains intact.

Meanwhile, there are others in the government, such as Prime Minister Netanyahu and Justice Minister Yariv Levin, who are not interested in having the election moved up even by a single day. They would prefer to use all the time remaining to them to pass new laws that will help them remain in power or at least will restrict the power of the Supreme Court. Finance Minister Smotrich is likewise uninterested in an early election, since he is in the middle of creating a budgetary revolution for the settlements in Yehuda and Shomron. He would prefer to have the election held later, after he has finished allocating funds for those communities; he believes that he will fare better at that time, whereas the current polls are showing his party floundering around the threshold.

In short, we have an interesting week ahead of us, and possibly an interesting month. Of course, that is nothing new; we are often living in interesting times here in Israel.

The Right–Wing Bloc May Retain Its Strength

Everyone has known all along that there would be an election within the next few months, but now that there is a possibility that it will be held earlier, all the political parties have been thrown into turmoil—the Likud party above all. Everyone in the Likud was preparing for primaries, but the dozens of candidates—those who are in the Knesset and hope to be reelected, and those who are not yet in the Knesset but hope to join its ranks—will have to move up their own preparations now as well. And there is another important point to keep in mind: According to the party constitution, a new party member must complete a 16-month qualifying period in order to be eligible to participate in the Likud primaries for the Knesset list. This means that anyone who joined the party in recent months will be able to vote in the primaries only if the general election and the primaries are held on their original dates. But if the Knesset dissolves earlier and the election is moved up, the Likud primaries will be held earlier as well. In that case, according to estimates within the party, between 10,000 and 20,000 new party members will not have completed their qualifying periods and will not be able to participate in the vote.

Now, why should this interest us? I will tell you a secret: There are thousands of chareidim who registered in the Likud as new members. This doesn’t mean that they would vote for the Likud in the general election, but they will certainly vote in the primaries. And their votes can make a very big difference.

But let’s take a look at the other side of the political map as well. As you know, there has already been one merger in the anti-Netanyahu camp: Naftoli Bennett and Yair Lapid have joined forces. It was very unclear if this alliance would bear fruit, and for the time being, the polls show that it hasn’t made much of a difference. Lately, there has been talk of another merger, this time between Gadi Eizenkot and Yvette Lieberman. Each of them heads a party that is worth between seven and ten mandates in the Knesset, and they hope that a union between the two parties will create a whole that is greater than the sum of its parts, leading them to rake in at least twenty mandates. The final goal is ostensibly for all four parties to unite, in the hope that they will be able to cross the threshold of 61 mandates as a bloc. That hope, however, is the stuff of fantasy. The opposition can never win 61 mandates on their own; they actually hope to cross that threshold with the Arabs’ support and to establish a coalition along with them. The opposition might not admit to this, but it is truly the only option for them, and it would be a very bad scenario for the chareidim. For now, however, the right-wing bloc has been maintaining its strength, and all the polls show the Likud party emerging as the largest party in the next election as well.

What about the chareidi parties? Rumor has it that Shas is planning to replace some of its representatives in the Knesset; however, I am not sure if that is true. The Shas party members in the Knesset have all been highly successful. Within United Torah Judaism, which includes both Degel HaTorah and Agudas Yisroel, there will probably be the usual arguments over the rotation agreement and which faction will lead the slate, and each faction will threaten to run separately, but there will be a shared list in the end as always. Will any of the representatives be replaced? Degel HaTorah has no reason to replace anyone, and within Agudas Yisroel, of course, it depends on what the rebbes decide. At this point, the Agudah is represented by Yitzchok Goldknopf of Ger, Yisroel Eichler of Belz, Yaakov Tessler of Vizhnitz, and Moishe Roth of Sanz. I would project that none of them will leave.

Free Speech Meets Double Standards

Naftoli Bennett recently filed a libel suit against Minister Idit Silman, a former member of his party who was actually responsible for bringing down the infamous Lapid-Bennett government. Silman claimed that Bennett took psychiatric medication, in a bid to demonstrate that he is psychologically fragile and not suited to lead the country, and Bennett decided to take her to court for it. It is unclear why this would be considered a libelous statement, given that we live in a generation when no one is ashamed—or, at least, no one is supposed to be ashamed—of suffering from emotional disorders. It is said that half the country has been categorized as suffering from anxiety, while the other half lives on antidepressants. In any event, keeping in mind that Bennett decided to sue Silman, one must wonder why he felt justified commenting, “Because of the chareidim, our soldiers are being killed.” What could possibly justify voicing that thought, which is surely more slanderous than any comment about someone’s mental state? Bennett has apparently failed to hold himself to the same standards that he imposes on his critics.

Are you wondering, perhaps, if this was a single slip that does not represent Bennett’s true mindset? Unfortunately, that is not the case. This week, after the chief of staff of the IDF addressed the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, Bennett repeated his claim: “The ongoing draft evasion is costing the lives of our soldiers.” This clearly wasn’t a fluke; on the contrary, it is part of an organized campaign. And accusing others of causing the deaths of soldiers is far worse than claiming that a politician takes medication for anxiety.

Yair Lapid, Bennett’s close ally, is guilty of the same incitement and slander. Yesh Atid regularly sends text messages to anyone whose phone number is recorded in their database of supporters. About a month ago, Lapid wrote to his voters, “Pay attention: The government stole millions of shekels of your money in the middle of the night and passed it on to Deri and chareidi activists. You fight in the army, you run to bomb shelters, and they steal. Now is the time to lift up your heads; Yesh Atid will put an end to this thievery and return the money to the public. You can count on us.” Again, why is this appalling rhetoric permitted at all?

This, at least, can help us understand the common ground between Bennett 2026 and Yesh Atid. These two political parties are toxic, their rhetoric dripping with venom. But our question stands: Why are they permitted to speak in ways that are prohibited to others such as Idit Silman? In fact, the left seems to have given itself the right to make any statement of any kind, no matter how vicious or slanderous it is. And that is aside from the fact that they have launched a massive campaign of delegitimization against the current government and the chareidi public, branding them as enemies of the state and parasites.

Drone Crosses Border, Injuring Three

Last week, I wrote about the problem of the Hezbollah drones. These primitive, simple devices have proven themselves quite dangerous. The highly advanced Israeli army does not know how to contend with a weapon that is so old and unsophisticated. The drones have already killed several IDF soldiers in Lebanon, and over the past two weeks, 17 victims were evacuated to Rambam Hospital in Haifa suffering from various degrees of injuries inflicted by the explosive drones. A soldier who visited a wounded friend related, “Almost every day, helicopters have been landing here carrying soldiers wounded by the drones. The Israeli forces in Lebanon are completely exposed, and no one knows when a drone is about to strike, since there are no warning systems. The drone simply appears and explodes. It is insane that the army still hasn’t come up with a development to prevent these drone strikes, which are the greatest threat facing our troops in Lebanon now.”

Another soldier serving in Lebanon added, “Our troops have not received any instructions for dealing with this threat. The only means of protection we have is the fishing nets placed on military vehicles. The drones with fiber optic cables arrive quietly, taking our soldiers by surprise. The forces are constantly worried about the threat, since they don’t know when or where the drones will catch them. There is no way to intercept these drones, which have become the greatest nightmare of our forces in Lebanon.”

A doctor reported that the soldiers wounded by the drones suffered injuries primarily on their faces, necks, arms, and legs, areas of the body that have less protection. A helmet and sturdy vest can prevent more serious injuries.

The defense establishment is working around the clock to find a solution that will reduce the drone threat level within a period of days to weeks. Over 100 proposals have already been examined, and some of those ideas will indeed be implemented for soldiers in the field. This week, it was reported that combat teams in southern Lebanon are expected to receive drone-detection kits. Defense officials admit that the equipment isn’t 100 percent effective, but it is a system that might give the soldiers the priceless seconds they need to take cover when an incoming drone is detected. Meanwhile, as you probably understood, the IDF has been protecting its vehicles, and sometimes its soldiers, with a type of netting that is supposed to catch a drone several meters before impact.

Last weekend, a drone crossed the border and injured three Israeli civilians, one of whom was critically wounded. The victims were struck in the parking lot of the grotto site at Rosh HaNikra, near the Lebanese border. The victims, residents of Metulla, are workers at the tourist site, which is currently closed to visitors. The IDF condemned the drone strike as a “blatant violation of the understandings of the ceasefire on the part of the terror organization Hezbollah.” Residents of the north, meanwhile, accused the government of abandoning them and called for the fighting in Lebanon to increase and for Hezbollah to be completely eliminated. The prime minister has already talked about eradicating both Hezbollah and Hamas, but it seems that the IDF hasn’t yet fully accomplished that goal.

Moshiach Patch Infuriates Chief of Staff

A major uproar erupted last week over an incident in the IDF. One might say that this incident illustrates the army’s lack of tolerance and accommodation for chareidim; however, it is possible that the chief of staff was correct and that the issue was one of discipline rather than religion.

Here is what happened: Chief of Staff Lieutenant General Eyal Zamir paid a visit to soldiers from the Nachal Brigade serving in the Shomron. Many of the soldiers in the brigade are religious, and Zamir encountered a soldier wearing a patch with the word “Moshiach” on his uniform. These patches have become somewhat fashionable in the army in recent times, perhaps as part of the general atmosphere of greater spiritual awareness in the country as a whole since October 7. However, the chief of staff complained to the soldier’s commander about the patch and ordered him to be disciplined, and the soldier was sentenced to 30 days in military prison.

When the story became public, it triggered a firestorm of outrage. The backlash against the chief of staff and the commander was ferocious. Parents of soldiers wrote bitterly, “The facts cry out to the heavens. This is a soldier who just completed two rounds of fighting in Lebanon. He doesn’t wear a yarmulke at all, but he chose to wear a patch expressing a common sentiment of hope and faith among Am Yisroel and its soldiers. This soldier was in the middle of a shift on guard duty when the chief of staff noticed him, and instead of being appreciated for his service, he found himself placed behind bars for a full month and removed from the battlefield. This is not the way to treat a hero. Belief in the coming of Moshiach has been a cornerstone of Jewish history and culture,” the parents continued. “It has accompanied us throughout the exile, amid pogroms and revivals. When the chief of staff of the Israel Defense Force chooses to send a soldier to jail for expressing basic Jewish faith, he is spitting in the faces of thousands of fighters, religious and secular alike, who draw their courage from tradition and faith. The army of the Jews cannot and does not need to fight against its faith.”

The parents demanded the soldier’s immediate release, and his mother wrote an emotional letter as well.

The army tried to minimize the damage by defending its actions. The commander of the brigade wrote to the soldiers, “It is important for you to know that the full responsibility rests on me. I acted as I did because discipline is a basic value that begins with us, the commanders, and encompasses all our soldiers. Unfortunately, the lack of discipline both in operational events and on routine duty is a threat to human life. The patch isn’t the real story here; the story is the values that we teach. The Nachal Brigade must serve as an example and a model in this area as well; that is our duty. Anything is preferable to a soldier being killed because of a lack of discipline. I believe in this path, and the background noise around it is part of it. Please ignore it.” In other words, he insisted that the soldier wearing the patch was punished to preserve discipline, not for ideological reasons.

What is the truth here? Is the army fighting against any display of Jewish faith, or is it merely part of an effort to enforce military discipline, including the rule against wearing anything that is not part of a military uniform? I imagine that the truth lies somewhere in the middle.

Netanyahu’s Secret Trip to Abu Dhabi

This wasn’t the only news story that caused an uproar in Israel this week. Last Wednesday, the Prime Minister’s Office released an official statement consisting of a couple of lines: “In the middle of Operation Roaring Lion, Prime Minister Binyomin Netanyahu secretly visited the United Arab Emirates and met with the president of the UAE, Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed. This visit led to a historic breakthrough in relations between Israel and the United Arab Emirates.”

This led to a veritable explosion among the public. Why was it necessary to publicize the matter, especially at this time? What did Netanyahu hope to gain? For now, it is impossible to determine the answers to these questions. It might have been an effort to drum up further public approval in advance of the election, or perhaps to distract the public from the furor over the draft law. Alternatively, it is possible that the story had already been leaked and Netanyahu preferred to announce it publicly before anyone else would report it. In any event, it certainly caught the country’s attention.

Perhaps I should elaborate a bit on this story. The secret visit took place during the war, on March 26, and was several hours long. Netanyahu visited the city of Al Ain, which is on the border between the UAE and Oman and is about 250 kilometers from the coast of Iran. Interestingly, on the very same day, the commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards’ navy was eliminated.

The response from the Foreign Ministry of the United Arab Emirates was surprisingly furious: “The United Arab Emirates denies the reports being spread regarding the visit of Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu to this country or a reception for any Israeli military delegation on its territory. The UAE emphasizes that its relations with Israel are open relations established within the framework of the Abraham Accords and are not based on secrecy or confidential arrangements. Any claim of visits or arrangements that were not announced to the public has no basis in fact, unless it was publicized by officially authorized bodies in the United Arab Emirates.”

This begs the question: If the public announcement of Netanyahu’s visit angered them so greatly, why did Israel reveal it?

In light of the denial, Netanyahu’s former chief of staff, Ziv Agmon—who was dismissed after he was recorded mocking Knesset members from the Likud party—published his version of the story: “Having accompanied the prime minister on this historic trip, which was top secret until today, I can attest that the prime minister received a royal reception in Abu Dhabi. The sheikh honored the prime minister greatly and personally transported him in his private vehicle from the plane to his palace. The things that the prime minister accomplished during this visit will be spoken about for generations.”

Without getting into all the details or understanding all the motivations, I can say one thing with certainty: Leaving Israel for another country, especially an Arab country, in the middle of a war and spending at least a day and a half there without anyone’s knowledge is an incredible accomplishment on its own. In the modern era, when everything is exposed to the public and it is almost impossible to keep a secret, it is amazing that Netanyahu was able to leave Israel for two days and meet with the head of an Arab state without anyone being aware of it.

Despite Global Turmoil, the Judges Continue Attacking Bnei Torah

The world is in a state of upheaval, whether it is in Ukraine, in China, or in the Straits of Hormuz. Israel is at war and the residents of the north are trembling with fear … yet the Supreme Court is going about its business as always. And that business, unfortunately, is the business of persecuting the chareidi public. Anti-religious organizations and other entities are still filing petitions against anything and everything connected to chareidim, and the judges continue listening to their petitions and issuing verdicts intended to restrict and suffocate the chareidim even more. No one can deny that they are driven by powerful hatred for the Torah and those who study it, along with the single-minded goal of toppling the Netanyahu government. The leftists are doing everything in their power to frustrate the chareidim, hoping that their frustration will spill over to Netanyahu and break the alliance between them. Among the latest petitions, one was filed by a Reform organization known as Chiddush, while another came from a member of the Knesset who belongs to the Labor party (which has since renamed itself the Democrats party). The petitioners’ identities are all we need to know in order to divine their motives.

The Knesset Finance Committee previously approved a transfer of 1.1 billion shekels for chareidi schools. These funds, as usual, had mostly been transferred to the schools already during the academic year of 5786 and were approved retroactively by the committee (although the Finance Ministry approved the actual transfers before they took place). The petitioners immediately complained to the Supreme Court that the retroactive approvals were illegal, and the judges accepted their arguments and demanded explanations. The government explained that this is a standard procedure and that the judges themselves receive salaries that are approved only retroactively, after they have been paid for the year. This didn’t exactly convince the judges, but after it became clear that most of the money had already been transferred in practice, the judges decided that it was a fait accompli and there was no reason for them to issue a ruling. During that hearing, Treasury representatives argued that it has been the standard practice for years for the government to approve expenditures at the end of the year even after they were already carried out.

However, the petitions quickly expanded to encompass the legitimacy of the funding itself, and the petitioners argued that the funding is illegal because chareidi schools do not actually teach the core curriculum. That is, even though the schools declare that they do teach the core subjects (in the case of girls’ schools or the lower classes in the chareidi school networks), the petitioners claimed that it is untrue. The judges discussed this issue last weekend and ordered the state to explain how it verifies that schools receiving government funding are indeed teaching the core curriculum of secular subjects. The judges decided that the government must answer their question within two weeks and that the Supreme Court would issue an amended interim order permitting the transfer of funds only to such schools.

In other words, the chareidi school system is about to absorb another economic blow.

It should also be clear that this isn’t the end of the story. The judge asked the government representatives, “How can you trust schools that claim to teach the core curriculum when they admit that they do not have teachers who are trained to teach those subjects?” One can already guess that the judges will rule that the government is not permitted to fund such schools even if they claim to be teaching the core curriculum, unless they can prove that they actually do so and can identify teachers on their faculties who are qualified in those fields.