The Torah Scholars Council of the Agudat Israel branch of the Haredi (ultra-orthodox) Torah Judaism party has instructed its parliament members to leave Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition government. Agudat Israel is the Chassidic branch of the Torah Judaism party. The other branch, Degel HaTorah generally represent the Lithuanian branch of Ashkenazi Haredi Jews.
This comes after the current government has so far failed to pass a law that would exempt religious Yeshiva students from some military service, or offer a military service for very religious Jewish men. The leading rabbis who oversee the ultra-orthodox parties have complained that military service for religious men would pull them away from a religious life. Skeptics and opponents of the power that the ultra-religious parties have wielded over Israeli governments over the past decades. Both the Ashkenazi Torah Judaism Party, and the Mizrachi Shas party have applied pressure on governments to continue exempting men who study at Yeshivas from mandatory military service.
A recently recorded telephone conversation was released, where Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu tried to convince a high ranking rabbi of from the Lithuanian branch of the Haredi community of his efforts to appease their political demands. He spoke on the phone with Rabbi Moshe Hillel Hirsh, a leading member of the Torah Leaders Council of the Degel Hatorah branch. In the recorded conversation, Netanyahu mentioned his tactics and plans to establish a special military program specifically for Heradi men who are not full-time Yeshiva students.