Goldknopf Conditions Coalition Support on Yeshiva-Student Status Law

United Torah Judaism chairman Yitzhak Goldknopf said his party will join only a post-election coalition that formally settles the status of yeshiva students and avreichim. He called the temporary draft-arrest freeze a political maneuver that was never designed to solve the issue and said the party left the government because Netanyahu did not intend to pass a draft law. Another party official said UTJ would prefer opposition to returning to the same unresolved position. The statements followed Netanyahu’s acknowledgment that the temporary measure failed and his promise that a broad national government would pass a full draft law after the election.