Israeli MK Dan Illouz Leaves Netanyahu’s Likud Party

MK Dan Illouz announced on Saturday that he is leaving Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s ruling Likud Party. @Jerusalem_Post reported the announcement, which followed Illouz’s repeated criticism of bills pushed by haredi parties inside the coalition.

Those measures include the Basic Law: Torah Study, which would allow haredi draft dodgers to receive state benefits, and a separate bill altering Israel’s daycare subsidy system.

In June, Illouz told The Jerusalem Post that the haredi parties “can be a danger to the future of the state of Israel” and urged the coalition to sever ties with them. “If the army doesn’t have enough soldiers, then that’s a danger to our ability to protect the state of Israel,” he said.

Illouz added that his right-wing, free-market and hawkish ideology should lead the country, but the coalition with ultra-Orthodox parties was not advancing those goals.