Yuli Edelstein: Why Israel's Government Must Change

There were at least three major points of difference between you and the party over the past few years.

Um, one that you mentioned is this vote for the application of Israeli law in Judea and Samaria, and this was for those, um, following the news.

This w- was at the time of the visit of Vice President Vance, which I think influenced the Likud's, um, willingness to participate, meaning they didn't want to do this while he was here.

But nonetheless, the vote proceeded, and you were the one person, if you s- as you said, that broke with the party ranks.

And another thing was, um, which we're gonna go into it in greater depth, is related to the efforts to legislate some kind of draft law, and you've been on the record multiple times as criticizing the drafts, uh, that have been put forth as simply insufficient, um, if not, if not worse.

You'll have to, um, you'll have to say it in your own words.

And then the, the, the last thing, which is also of interest, is related to judicial reform, where there too, I don't know, um, and again, you'll have to tell us what difference you had with the substance per se, but you were also questioning the method by which it was advanced quite publicly.

Um, and that was even though you are, and this too we'll have to go into, but you are one of the most important-- You were at the center of one of the most important Supreme Court cases, uh, in the past decade, um, and you had a frontal confrontation with, with the Supreme Court.

So why don't we start first with the Haredi draft, since I know that that's on everybody's minds right now, and we'll work to, to reach these other issues.

Um, and I, I don't think it'll be as far, far a jump as it, as it seems.

Can you explain, as the former chair of the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, the depth of the challenge that Israel faces strategically, economically, and socially when looking at this issue?

That's exactly the point.

It's not about, you know, some abstract discussion about, uh, equal rights for everyone or equal duties for everyone.

Uh, it's something very practical.

In practical terms, IDF needs more soldiers.

The number that IDF uses right now is like an immediate number of 12,000, uh, additional, uh, soldiers that IDF badly needs.

Uh, and, uh, I think that the, the, uh, only possibility to try to meet this number i- is if we change something about the ultra-Orthodox community in this country.

Now, I totally understand you can't make this change in one day.

Even my proposals were, uh, criticized by many reserve duty soldiers and others who said that they are very mild and they, they are too much of a compromise.

But I totally realized that, uh, if we want something that could somehow be swallowed by the, uh, by the ultra-Orthodox establishment, we need to come with a, to come with a compromise.

In the end, unfortunately, it turned out that, uh, no compromise was possible.

Their members of Knesset and their leadership never agreed to any kind of compromise that would lead to, to practical draft to the army.

Now, uh, I said that, that, that your question was excellent because it's not just about the army.

The immediate result of, of serving in the army is that after that, people will be able to join the labor force in this country, talking about economy and the, the station we are at after three years of war.

Regular work with paying taxes and with all that of a significant segment of the population could be Of real influence on the state of Israeli economy.