Bennett says IDF faces collapse without haredi draft, blames Netanyahu

Naftali Bennett, the former prime minister who now leads the B'Yachad party, accused Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on September 29, 2026 of steering the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) toward collapse by failing to enlist ultra-Orthodox men. According to Ynet, Bennett said the army is missing tens of thousands of soldiers, that troops are being killed because there are not enough observation posts and snipers, and that Netanyahu is ignoring the shortage while taking the military apart. He said the IDF needs reinforcements and will collapse if haredim are not drafted soon.

Bennett spoke at Hostages Square in Tel Aviv. The Times of Israel reported that he charged Netanyahu with presiding over "mass draft evasion and the collapse of the IDF," a reference to the government's efforts to write exemptions for haredi yeshiva students into law. Ynet reported that after the statement he met Yocheved Lifshitz, who survived captivity, and Einav Zangauker.

What Bennett said

The central claim, carried by every outlet, is that the army cannot sustain its current burden without new manpower and that the shortfall can only be closed by drafting ultra-Orthodox men. A Ynet news alert quoted him as saying the IDF is facing a collapse that Netanyahu is leading, and that nobody would later be able to claim the prime minister had not been warned. The Jerusalem Post summarised his message as a warning that the military will collapse without haredi enlistment and that Netanyahu is dismantling it.

According to The Times of Israel, Bennett framed his attack as a response to Netanyahu's own emphasis on security threats, arguing that the draft issue is itself the gravest danger. He also said that everyone who held a leadership role in the period before the October 7, 2023 massacre, and who was part of that failure, should leave their post at once.

The haredi draft dispute

Haredi is the Hebrew term for ultra-Orthodox Jews. For decades, men studying full time in yeshivas, religious seminaries, have been largely kept out of compulsory military service, which applies to most other Jewish Israelis. The arrangement has long been contested, and the question of whether to enlist haredi men has become sharper as the army has sought more soldiers. The Times of Israel described the current government as trying to legislate exemptions for yeshiva students, the policy Bennett is campaigning against.

Both Ynet and The Jerusalem Post filed their reports under their coverage of the 2026 Israeli election, and Bennett's statement was a political one delivered as party leader. B'Yachad, the name of his party, is Hebrew for "together."

The setting in Tel Aviv

Hostages Square became a gathering point for the families of hostages taken into Gaza after the October 7, 2023 attack, and for the public campaign to bring them home. Choosing it as a venue linked Bennett's draft message to the wider demand for accountability over that day, which he also raised.

The reports give differing details about exactly where he stood. News.co.il reported that he delivered the statement from an underground car park rather than from the hostage families' tent, citing a directive from the Shin Bet, Israel's domestic security agency. A later News.co.il post showed Bennett at the "Sukkat HaMechdal" in the square, crediting the photograph to that group. A sukkah is the temporary booth built for the Sukkot holiday; mechdal is the Hebrew word Israelis commonly use for the failures surrounding the October 7 attack. The reports do not explain how these two accounts fit together, and they may describe different moments of the same visit.

Captions attached to the reports also differ on the date: The Jerusalem Post's photo caption gives September 29, 2026, while a caption in The Times of Israel item gives a different day. All of the reports were published on September 29.

What the reports do not say

• None of the reports gives a source or basis for Bennett's figure of tens of thousands of missing soldiers, and no response from the IDF to that claim is included.
• No reply from Netanyahu, his Likud party or haredi parties to Bennett's remarks appears in the material.
• The reports do not specify which draft legislation the government is advancing or where it stands.
• News.co.il attributes the change of venue to a Shin Bet directive but gives no reason for that directive, and the Shin Bet is not quoted.
• Ynet does not report what Bennett discussed with Yocheved Lifshitz or Einav Zangauker.