ARUTZ SHEVA
Bennett to Eisenkot: No exemptions, no deals
August 19, 2026

Former prime minister Naftali Bennett, who heads the “Together” party, slammed “Yashar!” party chairman former IDF Chief of Staff Gadi Eisenkot over the latter’s framework for haredi enlistment. “We need a large, proactive military,” Bennett said. “It is unacceptable for the IDF to be short 20,000 soldiers while 100,000 healthy young haredi men are not serving. In the next government under my leadership, we will enlist everyone, without exemptions and without backroom deals,” Bennett said. Taking aim at Eisenkot, he added, “The moment you start with ideas like a 30% exemption, committees, and frameworks, we’ve all been there, and we know from experience exactly how it ends: with nothing. Another round at the expense of the latest naive politician, without a single haredi actually enlisting.” READ MORE