Israel's Chief Rabbi: "Netanyahu is an Atheist"

Israel’s political and religious tensions deepened as Chief Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef attacked both ultra-Orthodox lawmakers and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over the stalled draft law.

Speaking to supporters, Yosef accused Orthodox party leaders of naively trusting Netanyahu to pass conscription exemptions as part of the coalition deal.

“What are you relying on him for? He is an atheist. How can you trust someone like that?” Yosef said, warning that failure to act earlier left thousands of yeshiva students vulnerable to arrest.

Anger Over Enforcement

Yosef’s speech also denounced the enforcement of draft orders, claiming that military police were targeting Sephardi students.

“They know the mothers and fathers are weak. Is this Russia? Is this a communist regime? Bolsheviks? They come and arrest boys in the middle of the night,” he charged.

The rabbi went further, instructing students to refuse entry to military police, telling them: “Look through the peephole and don’t open the door. Be strong, God will help us through this difficult period.”

Calls for Escalation

His remarks follow weeks of increasingly radical proposals inside the Ultra-Orthodox leadership, including threats to collapse Israel’s banking system through mass withdrawals, boycott major companies, and hunger strikes outside government offices.

Earlier this year, Yosef had already sparked outrage by urging conscription-age Haredim to “tear up draft notices, throw them in the toilet, and flush.”

A Growing Rift

The clash underscores a widening rift between Israel’s government and its Haredi partners. Netanyahu, once viewed as the guarantor of draft exemptions, now faces open revolt from religious leaders accusing him of betrayal.

With protests mounting and senior rabbis framing conscription as tantamount to a war on Judaism itself, the battle over the draft law is threatening to destabilize both Israel’s coalition and its fragile balance between state and religion.