Israel’s Knesset vote May 29 to disperse and hold a fresh vote Sept. 17 after one month is a first in Israel’s political history. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu failed to compose a majority coalition, in view of a fundamental discord over the enlistment law within Israel’s right-wing camp — the two ultra-Orthodox parties, Mizrahi Shas and Ashkenazi Yahadut HaTorah, versus Yisrael Beitenu leader Avigdor Liberman, who represents the secular right.

The issue of enlistment in the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has been one of the central bones of contention in the State of Israel ever since it was founded. In fact, the issue has divided the public for years, with tens of thousands protesting in the streets, and has been used as political fuel by various political parties. Still, this is the first time this issue generated new elections twice in the same year.

The latest enlistment law proposal, presented to the Knesset by then-Defense Minister Liberman, nearly passed the previous Knesset. It was approved by the government and passed an initial reading in 2018, but the opposition of one of the ultra-Orthodox factions — the Gur Hasidim, who are represented by Minister of Health Yaakov Litzman — created a coalition crisis and in the end caused an early election.

True, at the beginning, Liberman’s compromise proposal was actually accepted by many within the ultra-Orthodox leadership. The proposal enabled most yeshiva students — about 70,000 youths ages 18 to 24 — to continue receiving an exemption from military service while requiring the enlistment of only a small minority. According to data published by the Knesset’s Research and Information Center, this minority counts some 3,000 ultra-Orthodox annual enlistments, while 15,000 receive exemption or their army service is postponed. Two thousand opt for civil or community service.