Amid a coalition crisis in Israel over Haredi conscription, U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee on Tuesday said he’d told local interlocutors that Americans would likely view “a collapsed government as an unstable one.”
Huckabee made the remark on X following a Hebrew media report that accused him of “meddling in [Israeli] politics” to prevent a Haredi walkout and early elections over the Haredi parties’ demand for an exemption from national service for yeshiva students.
The Channel 13 report claimed the U.S. ambassador had met with senior Haredi politicians, including Jerusalem Affairs and Jewish Heritage Minister Meir Porush, to dissuade them from toppling the government.
Channel 13 has pursued a highly critical editorial line regarding Israel’s conservative government and coalition.
“There has been no attempt to influence Haredi Knesset members regarding a decision to dissolve the government. I have repeatedly said in private conversations that it is not the role of the United States, nor of its Ambassador, to try and choose the government of Israel,” Huckabee wrote.
“Rather, it is my job to work with the government that the people of Israel decide. Israel needs both scholars and soldiers but how they determine the balance is not something I could or would weigh in on,” he added.
When asked “what the reaction in the U.S. would be [to a collapse of the government] I said that most Americans didn’t understand the parliamentary government and would likely see a collapsed government as an unstable one given an ongoing war, daily threats from Houthi missiles, and a possible nuclear threat from Iran,” Huckabee added.
It is the United States’ “responsibility to work with the government that Israelis choose. There was no attempt to instruct or advise other than mentioning that the conflict between scholars and soldiers might best be settled by someone they were all familiar with, King Solomon, who faced difficult choices and found a way to resolve them. Israel is a sovereign nation with its own procedures on selecting a government. We respect that. Reports that go beyond that are either misleading or untrue,” said Huckabee.
Both Shas and United Torah Judaism, two Haredi coalition partners of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, have in recent days signaled their intention to leave the government over the Israeli army’s plan to send out more than 50,000 draft orders to yeshivah students.
Ultra-Orthodox Israeli men have received near-blanket exemptions from military service since Israel’s establishment in 1948. This has prompted criticism from other segments of the population, and increasingly so since the Oct. 7, 2023 outbreak of Israel’s longest war since 1948.
Israel’s Supreme Court ruled last year that following the expiry of the law regulating the Haredi exemption, the state must begin drafting Haredi men. This put pressure on Israel’s political leadership to regulate the status of yeshiva students lest they face legal sanctions. But passing an exemption during wartime would meet stiff resistance both within and outside the coalition.
