Category World News

The killing of 14-year-old Yosef Eisenthal, who was run over by a bus during an anti-recruitment protest in an Orthodox district of West Jerusalem on Tuesday night, has brought renewed attention to one of the most contentious issues in Israeli politics: the exemption of ultra-Orthodox Jews from military service.

According to numerous analysts, the scale of the fissure is such that it poses an existential threat to the right-wing coalition led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, which has so far weathered multiple accusations of genocide in Gaza and criticism over unilateral attacks on regional neighbours.

Eisenthal was among tens of thousands of ultra-Orthodox, or Haredi, protesters when he was hit by the bus at an intersection in the Romema neighbourhood. Three other protesters, all reported to be teenagers, were injured in the incident. Israeli media reports say the bus driver had previously been attacked by demonstrators before driving into the crowd.

Netanyahu issued a statement on Wednesday morning, pledging that the incident would be thoroughly investigated and urging “restraint to prevent the mood from becoming further inflamed so that, heaven forbid, we do not have additional tragedies”.

Anger over the exemption of Israel’s ultra-Orthodox students dates back to early attempts in 1999 to formalise what had previously been a de facto arrangement, with Haredi leaders arguing that young men should be allowed to focus on full-time religious study to preserve Jewish law and tradition, rather than be conscripted to join the army, as other Israeli Jews are.

However, legal challenges to the exemption, most recently from the Supreme Court late last year demanding that Haredi recruitment be enforced, combined with reports of manpower shortages linked to Israel’s military conflicts in Gaza, Lebanon, Syria, and Iran, have pushed the issue back into the spotlight.

Polls show broad public support for the ending of the exemption, a notion publicly backed by Netanyahu. But two of the prime minister’s key coalition partners, United Torah Judaism (UTJ) and Shas, have repeatedly threatened to withdraw from the government or vote against the state budget, triggering new elections, unless legislation is passed preserving Haredi exemptions or limiting conscription for students at Israel’s ultra-Orthodox schools, known as yeshivas.

“You need to remember, these aren’t political parties in the conventional sense,” Yossi Mekelberg, a senior consulting fellow at Chatham House, said, characterising UTJ and Shas as operating to the benefit of their community and not wider society. “They are elected as parties to operate as pressure groups inside the Knesset [parliament]. They know that no one outside of their own ultra-Orthodox community will vote for them, and they really have no interest in persuading them to do so.”

“All they have is their own religious base, with a proportion in society that is constantly increasing,” added Mekelberg. “Preserving that base, for the large part, is about keeping them out of the army where they might encounter different types of approaches to religion, including secularism, which their rabbis are afraid would tempt and corrupt them.”

Bitter debate

Despite the limited deaths, the Israeli army has incurred compared to the tens of thousands of Palestinians killed during its genocidal war on Gaza, anger over the Haredi communities’ apparent exemption from the draft has grown among a society fractured from two years of unrelenting conflict.

An autumn poll last year showed an overwhelming number of Israeli respondents saw the societal schism between secular and ultra-Orthodox Israelis as one of the most divisive issues facing contemporary Israel.

Responding to the death of Eisenthal, UTJ’s Meir Porush told reporters, “It is impossible to ignore the fact that more than once during demonstrations by the ultra-Orthodox public, there is a public atmosphere that it is permissible to harm the demonstrators.”

“The situation in which incitement is rampant against the ultra-Orthodox public is causing Jews to fear for their safety in the Land of Israel,” Porush continued. “I call on all public leaders to call for an end to the harm and incitement against the ultra-Orthodox public.”

“There’s very little sympathy for the ultra-Orthodox among much of Israeli society,” Ori Goldberg, an Israeli political analyst, said. “They’ve gone to great lengths to distance themselves from the rest of the population, so most people don’t really care … Israeli society is broken.”

Divisive

From Israel’s creation in 1948, a handful of highly skilled ultra-Orthodox scholars were granted exemptions from Israel’s mandatory military service, which applies to most Jewish citizens. However, over the years, the influence of influential religious parties, such as Shas and UTJ, has led to a significant increase in the number of military exemptions, currently estimated at about 90 percent of the 13,000 ultra-Orthodox men who reach conscription age each year.

While Shas and UTJ only hold 18 seats in the parliament, the fractured nature of Israeli politics and Netanyahu’s reliance upon the right have given the ultra-Orthodox a disproportionate level of influence.

“It’s true that they don’t have many seats, but Netanyahu absolutely needs their support to maintain his coalition and remain prime minister,” Mitchell Barak, an Israeli pollster and former political aide to several senior Israeli political figures, including Netanyahu, told Al Jazeera. “It’s true that the ultra-Orthodox parties also need Netanyahu and his government to have any power and relevance in their own communities. But the draft issue is everything. To them, if they lose this: they have nothing.”

Increasing influence

Across Israel, the Haredi are a growing social and political constituency, with both their political heft and the influence of religion across society increasing as their numbers do.

In 2009, the Haredi made up 9.9 percent of Israel’s population. By 2065, they are forecast to make up more than 30 percent. Alongside this growth, ultra-Orthodox parties are making sure their members’ interests are served and that they remain loyal: all of which could spell problems for Israel’s future.

“Parties like Shas and UTJ rely on keeping its younger members religious and reliant upon benefits,” Mekelberg said.

The board of Warner Bros Discovery (WBD) has unanimously turned down Paramount Skydance’s latest attempt to acquire the studio, saying its revised $108.4bn hostile bid amounted to a risky leveraged buyout that investors should reject.

In a letter to shareholders on Wednesday, the WBD board said Paramount’s offer hinges on “an extraordinary amount of debt financing” that heightens the risk of closing. It reaffirmed its commitment to streaming giant Netflix’s $82.7bn deal for the film and television studio and other assets.

Some investors, however, pushed back on Warner Bros. Pentwater Capital Management CEO Matthew Halbower said that the media giant’s board had “made an error” by not considering Paramount’s bid.

On CNBC on Wednesday, Halbower called the deal “economically superior”.

Paramount’s financing plan would saddle the smaller Hollywood studio with $87bn in debt once the acquisition closes, making it the largest leveraged buyout in history, the Warner Bros board told shareholders after voting against the $30-per-share cash offer on Tuesday. The letter accompanied a 67-page amended merger filing that laid out its case for rejecting Paramount’s offer.

Paramount deal ‘remains inadequate’

The revised Paramount offer “remains inadequate particularly given the insufficient value it would provide, the lack of certainty in Paramount Skydance ability to complete the offer, and the risks and costs borne by WBD shareholders should Paramount Skydance fail to complete the offer”, the Warner Bros board wrote.

Paramount, which has a market value of about $14bn, proposed to use $40bn in equity, which would be personally guaranteed by Oracle’s billionaire co-founder Larry Ellison, whose son David is Paramount’s CEO, and $54bn in debt to finance the deal.

Its financing plan would further weaken its credit rating, which S&P Global already rates at junk levels, and strain its cash flow – heightening the risk that the deal will not close, the Warner Bros board said. Netflix, which has offered $27.75 a share in cash and stock, has a $400bn market value and investment-grade credit rating.

The decision keeps Warner Bros on track to pursue the deal with Netflix, even after Paramount amended its bid on December 22 to address the earlier concerns about the lack of a personal guarantee from Ellison, who is Paramount’s controlling shareholder.

Paramount and Netflix have been vying to win control of Warner Bros, and with it, its prized film and television studios and its extensive content library. Its lucrative entertainment franchises include  Harry Potter, Game of Thrones, Friends, and the DC Comics universe; as well as coveted classic films such as Casablanca and Citizen Kane.

Netflix applauds

Netflix co-CEOs Ted Sarandos and Greg Peters welcomed Warner Bros’ decision on Wednesday, saying it recognises the streaming giant’s deal “as the superior proposal that will deliver the greatest value to its stockholders, as well as consumers, creators and the broader entertainment industry”.

Warner Bros Chairman Samuel Di Piazza told CNBC that the company was not currently in talks with Paramount but remains open to a transaction with the Ellison-led firm, and both the deals have a path to regulatory approval.

“From our perspective, they’ve got to put something on the table that is compelling,” he said, referring to the Paramount offer.

Wednesday’s filing said Warner Bros’ board met on December 23 to review Paramount’s amended offer and noted some improvements, including Ellison’s personal guarantee and a higher reverse termination fee of $5.8bn, but found “significant costs” associated with Paramount’s bid compared with a Netflix deal.

Warner Bros would be obligated to pay the streaming service a $2.8bn termination fee for abandoning its merger agreement with Netflix, $1.5bn in fees to its lenders and about $350m in additional financing costs. Altogether, Warner Bros said it would incur about $4.7bn in additional costs to terminate its deal with Netflix, or $1.79 per share.

The board repeated some concerns it had laid out on December 17, such as that Paramount would impose operating restrictions on the studio that would harm its business and competitive position, including barring the planned spin-out of the company’s cable television networks into a separate public company, Discovery Global.

Paramount offered “insufficient compensation” for the damage done to the studio’s business, if the Paramount deal failed to close, Warner Bros said.

Paramount “repeatedly failed to submit the best proposal” to Warner Bros shareholders, the board wrote, “despite clear direction” on the deficiencies in its bid and potential solutions.

The jockeying for Warner Bros has become Hollywood’s most closely watched takeover battle, as studios race to scale up amid intensifying competition from streaming platforms and volatile theatrical revenues.

While Netflix’s offer has a lower headline value, analysts have said it presents a clearer financing structure and fewer execution risks than Paramount’s bid for the entire company, including its cable TV business.

“WBD does not want to sell to Paramount, so it will keep rejecting Paramount as long as it is able to,” said Ross Benes, an analyst at eMarketer.

“But this process is not over … Paramount will have opportunity to make further attempts.”

Harris Oakmark, Warner Bros’ fifth-largest investor, previously told Reuters that Paramount’s revised offer was not “sufficient”, noting it was not enough to cover the breakup fee.

Paramount has argued its bid would face fewer regulatory obstacles, but a combined Paramount-Warner Bros entity would create a formidable competitor to industry leader Disney and merge two major television operators and two streaming services.

The valuation of Warner Bros’ planned Discovery Global spin-off, which includes cable television networks CNN, TNT Sports and the Discovery+ streaming service, is seen as a major sticking point. Analysts peg the cable channels’ value at up to $4 per share, while Paramount has suggested just $1.

Lawmakers from both parties have raised concerns about further consolidation in the media industry, and US President Donald Trump has said he plans to weigh in on the landmark acquisition.

US officials say they’ve taken control of two oil tankers linked to Venezuela in the Atlantic and the Caribbean on Wednesday, due to ‘violations of US sanctions’.

Emergency crews in Kosovo carried out a second day of evacuations after the region was devastated by floods. Footage shows people being evacuated from submerged homes as floodwaters slammed several municipalities.