Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is urging the ultra-Orthodox parties in his coalition not to force early elections in September, warning in private conversations that such a timeline would “endanger” the right-wing bloc’s chances of winning, Channel 12 reported Thursday.

On Wednesday, Netanyahu’s coalition submitted a bill to dissolve the Knesset and trigger elections. A preliminary Knesset vote on dissolving parliament is scheduled for next Wednesday.

But according to the report, Netanyahu has told Haredi lawmakers that if elections are triggered now – with campaigning effectively beginning within two weeks – he would be unable to fully focus on the race due to the ongoing security situation, particularly as US President Donald Trump weighs a resumption of the US-Israeli war with Iran, which is currently in a ceasefire that began more than a month ago.

Elections must occur by October 27 in any case, and with the vote approaching, the government is planning to advance a five-year plan to support the ultra-Orthodox community that would include transferring hundreds of millions of shekels to programs focused on that population, according to Hebrew media reports.

According to Kan public broadcaster, the plan entails allocating 25 percent of the Education Ministry’s construction budget to the ultra-Orthodox education system. In addition, an annual budget of NIS 44 million ($15.1 million) will be earmarked for a “dropout prevention” program from yeshivas whose purpose is to help students avoid enlistment in the IDF. Tens of millions of additional shekels would be transferred annually for professional training programs and “ultra-Orthodox tourism.”

The report said the government aims to approve the plan before the elections.

The maneuvering came two days after the ultra-Orthodox Degel HaTorah faction, one of two factions of the United Torah Judaism party, announced that it would push to dissolve the Knesset and move up the election. Degel HaTorah called for elections in protest of the coalition’s failure to pass a law that would enshrine blanket conscription exemptions for yeshiva students. That position was later backed by the other UTJ faction, Agudat Yisrael.

If lawmakers vote to dissolve the........

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