She reported that 61 Knesset members voted against the bill, while 53 voted in favor. This came after several ultra-Orthodox parties announced their refusal to support the law, after reaching understandings with Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee Chairman Yuli Edelstein regarding the conscription law.
According to the newspaper, only a number of Haredi Knesset members voted in favor of the law, following their announcement of their rejection of the understandings reached with Edelstein.
The Knesset witnessed a tense session before the vote on the law began. Opposition party leader Yair Lapid said that the Netanyahu government, by making statements about conscripting Haredim into the army and helping them evade military service, had spit in the face of soldiers and sacrificed them.
Lapid added that the ruling Israeli coalition will begin to collapse tonight, whether or not the law to dissolve the Knesset is passed.
For his part, former War Cabinet member Benny Gantz said in a speech, "The army needs fighters, and Netanyahu is trying to convince the Haredim that Israel is living in a dangerous security situation" in order to prevent them from bringing down the government and dissolving the Knesset, rather than convincing them to join the army.
It's worth noting that the bill was proposed amid a growing coalition crisis in Israel over the so-called "Haredi Conscription Law," particularly the disagreements between the Haredi parties and the chairman of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, who is seeking to legislate immediate penalties for draft evaders.
Yedioth Ahronoth reported that the Israeli army is suffering from a severe shortage of soldiers, estimated at approximately 10,000.
