Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee Chairman MK Boaz Bismuth sharply criticized the committee’s legal advisers on Sunday following the approval of legislation freezing the arrests of eligible yeshiva bochurim, accusing them of overstepping their authority and undermining efforts to increase Chareidi enlistment.

Speaking after the committee approved the bill for its second and third readings, Bismuth argued that the legal opinion presented to lawmakers ignored the positions of the IDF, the government, and other professional officials directly involved in the issue.

“I truly wonder what causes legal advisers to think that everything they say is the final word,” Bismuth said. “Sometimes it seems that legal opinions are trying to override professional and practical considerations.”

Bismuth said officials responsible for Chareidi recruitment into the IDF told the committee that arrests are ineffective and actually harm enlistment efforts by producing the opposite of the intended result.

He also accused the committee’s legal advisers of acting as an extension of the Attorney General’s office.

“When there’s an opportunity to calm things down, they choose to inflame them. When there’s an opportunity to reduce the divide, they deepen it,” he said.

Bismuth concluded by saying policymakers must consider not only legal opinions but also the broader social and security implications.

“Our responsibility is to extinguish the flames in the streets, reduce the divisions within Israeli society, and advance the vision of Chareidi enlistment into the IDF,” he said.

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)