Former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett pledged Tuesday to enforce military conscription, cut state funding for those who evade service and prevent draft evaders—or those who encourage draft evasion—from serving in Israel’s security cabinet.

Speaking at the ICT World Summit on Counterterrorism in Herzliya, Bennett argued that Israel cannot achieve lasting security without eradicating Hamas and addressing the military’s manpower shortage.

“In the next government, we will achieve a decisive victory and restore quiet and security for the people of Israel,” he said.

Bennett accused Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, Shas chairman Aryeh Deri and Religious Zionist Party chairman Bezalel Smotrich of encouraging and financing mass draft evasion while soldiers remain stretched across the battlefield.

“Who will fight? Who will secure victory?” he asked.

“Draft evasion poses a strategic threat to Israel’s security,” Bennett said, asserting that the IDF faces an immediate shortage of 20,000 combat soldiers. He argued that the shortage is costing lives and obstructing victory.

Bennett said troops are being wounded and killed by drones because there are insufficient lookouts and snipers to protect them. He also claimed that combat units are relinquishing captured positions because there are not enough soldiers to hold the ground, only to return and retake those areas “at a cost in blood.”

The B’Yachad party leader promised mandatory conscription for everyone without compromise and a complete cutoff of state funding for those who do not enlist.

“Anyone who does not enlist will not receive a single shekel from the state,” he declared.

Bennett said a proposal he calls the “Deri Law” would be a fundamental condition for the next government. It would bar anyone who evaded IDF service, or encouraged others to evade it, from membership in the security cabinet.

“With us, a draft dodger will not sit in the security cabinet,” he said, rejecting a situation in which someone who boasts about keeping his own grandchildren out of combat makes decisions sending other families’ children into battle.

Bennett also defended his former government’s Gaza policy, saying it changed the equation, while accusing Netanyahu’s government of tolerating tens of thousands of rockets and incendiary balloons.

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)