Israel Heads Toward Snap Elections as Coalition Unravels

by | May 20, 2026 | News

a person is casting a vote into a box

Israel is moving toward early elections after the governing coalition failed to pass a law exempting ultra-Orthodox yeshiva students from military service — the issue that has paralyzed Israeli politics for years.

A preliminary vote to dissolve the Knesset is scheduled for Wednesday. If the dissolution bill passes all required readings, elections must be held by October 27. The Haredi parties are pushing for September 1, calculating that students returning to yeshiva and worshippers attending Selichot prayers will boost their turnout.

The crisis began when the High Court ruled in 2024 that the decades-long blanket military exemption for Haredi men had no legal basis. The coalition’s attempt to legislate a replacement collapsed under internal disagreement — and the outbreak of war with Iran bought only a brief reprieve.

Netanyahu’s office claimed Tuesday to have secured a majority to advance the bill, but senior Haredi figures called it “nonsense.” “He doesn’t need to give notice,” said a spokesman for the Degel HaTorah party. “He should just bring it to a vote.”

Opposition leader Yair Golan urged rival party heads to hold a joint press conference, calling this “a critical moment in history” and appealing for a unified democratic front.

Meanwhile, some 80,000 ultra-Orthodox men of draft age remain unenlisted — as the IDF faces a persistent manpower shortage and a war still ongoing on Israel’s northern and eastern fronts.

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