Ehud Barak softens on the Haredi draft: 'IDF can't absorb them all,' offers national service to oust Netanyahu

FACTS

Former Prime Minister Ehud Barak said Monday that the IDF "is anyway unable to integrate all the haredim" and proposed that those who don't enlist do about nine months of national service "and then go about their lives," in an interview with Radio 103FM reported by Arutz Sheva and Yeshiva World News.

Barak said the opposition bloc's most important promise is removing Netanyahu, and "if another promise contradicts it, it must move aside." He said Gadi Eisenkot could offer a draft bill the Haredi parties could accept: "They won't love it, but it will be fair. We don't want to eliminate Torah study." He paired it with calls for core-curriculum studies, employment and tax participation.

The remarks come as the anti-Netanyahu bloc looks for a path to 61 seats ahead of President Herzog's coalition consultations Wednesday.