📰 Netanyahu’s Backroom Deal: UTJ’s Eichler Gets Deputy Minister Post for Draft Bill

Netanyahu is set to appoint Yisrael Eichler, a prominent Agudat Yisrael MK, as deputy communications minister—part of a political deal to push through the contentious haredi draft bill. The move will cost NIS 3.5 million from the PM’s office and will allow Yitzhak Pindrus, from the Degel Hatorah faction, to re-enter the Knesset and vote for the bill in Eichler’s place.
​
The UTJ Power Shuffle
Agudat Yisrael and Degel Hatorah, the two factions of United Torah Judaism (UTJ), have been feuding for months. The appointment is seen as a compromise to balance power within the party after its July resignation from the government over the previous draft bill. Pindrus was removed under the Norwegian Law, but this deal brings him back—ensuring UTJ’s support for Netanyahu’s coalition at a critical moment.
​
Critics Call It 'Draft Evasion'
Opposition leader Yair Lapid called the move a disgrace, accusing Netanyahu of “promoting draft evasion from the IDF together with Knesset members who do not believe in the existence of the State of Israel.” Lapid highlighted Eichler’s past statements calling Israel an “enemy state” and a “Hebrew ghetto,” and slammed the allocation of NIS 3.5 million for a new ministerial post while funds for Holocaust survivors were slashed.
​
Survival or Surrender?
With the 2026 state budget vote looming, Netanyahu’s government is playing high-stakes poker. If the budget isn’t passed by March, the Knesset dissolves and elections are triggered. So is this a desperate bid to keep the coalition alive, or just another chapter in Israel’s never-ending saga of political horse-trading?
​
#Israel #Netanyahu #UTJ #DraftBill #PoliticalDeal #Knesset #Haredi

📱 American Оbserver - Stay up to date on all important events 🇺🇸

Coalition Insurance, Terms Apply

The next government has yet to find a majority. Offers to keep it alive are already arriving.

On Oct. 10, Joint List chairman Yousef Jabareen offered a parliamentary “safety net” to any government replacing Netanyahu.

The price is negotiations over Arab citizens’ rights and a political path toward Palestinian statehood. “We are not giving anyone a blank check,” he said. The opposition’s emergency exit has a price list.

United Torah Judaism is keeping its options open. MK Yitzhak Pindrus says the party is outside Netanyahu’s bloc and has yet to decide how it would vote on an Eisenkot government. Its lawmakers will vote together. The destination remains negotiable; the seats come as a package.

Bennett has ruled out a government dependent on Arab parties. Liberman says there will be no coalition with them. Jabareen is offering support from outside the cabinet, where an indispensable vote carries weight without a ministerial title.

Netanyahu’s challengers campaign on replacing his political bargains. Arab and Haredi parties are already offering them fresh ones.

A “safety net” sounds more respectable than dependence. It still has to hold the government’s weight.

#IsraelElections #JointList #UTJ #BabylonBurning

📱 American Оbserver - Stay up to date on all important events🇺🇸

Gur Backs UTJ, Barely

The Gur Rebbe, Rabbi Yaakov Aryeh Alter, called on his Hasidim to vote for United Torah Judaism, ending days of uncertainty over whether Israel’s largest Hasidic movement would back the party at all.

The call appeared in the Oct. 18 edition of Hamodia, the Agudat Yisrael daily tied to Gur. It asks followers to vote for the “Gimel” list, UTJ’s ballot letter.

The silence had followed weeks of tension between Gur and Degel HaTorah, UTJ’s non-Hasidic partner, partly over how hard to press the government on the draft law.

One Gur Hasid told Arutz Sheva the aim was to keep Belz candidate Elyakim Stark out of the Knesset.

Belz endorsed UTJ on the night of Oct. 17. Hamodia ran a parallel endorsement from the Slonim Rebbe below the Gur statement.

Gur’s notice did not urge activists to recruit additional voters, unlike the movement’s previous election directives.

The message lifts the threat of a public boycott without resolving the dispute behind it. UTJ got the endorsement. The Gur leadership kept the campaign at arm’s length.

#UTJ #Israel #Haredim #Elections

📱 American Оbserver - Stay up to date on all important events🇺🇸