Israel's Supreme Court unanimously voted to start conscripting ultra-Orthodox yeshiva students into the Israeli military to help with the war in Gaza. And it's a decision that could "lead to the collapse of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's ruling coalition," The Washington Post said. 

Military service is mandatory for most Israelis once they are 18, but ultra-Orthodox Jews, also known as the Haredim, have been largely exempt since 1948. But what was once a small group of a few hundred has blossomed into roughly 1.3 million, or nearly 13% of the population. 

Two ultra-Orthodox parties in Netanyahu's fragile coalition, Shas and United Torah Judaism, have expressed upset at the ruling. The parties have supported Netanyahu for years with the conscription exception as a major pillar of their motivation to remain in his coalition, said The New York Times. "Many ultra-Orthodox view military service as a gateway to assimilation into a secular Israeli society that would lead young people to deviate from a lifestyle guided by the Torah," said the Times. 

What did the commentators say?
While it's possible for the ultra-Orthodox parties to "bolt the coalition and vote with the opposition to disband the Knesset and force a new election," things don't seem to be going in that direction, said the Yaakov Katz, of the Jewish People Policy Institute, at Newsweek. The parties realize that the "next government will almost certainly be much less hospitable if it includes them at all," said Anshel Pfeffer at Haaretz. By remaining in Netanyahu's governing group, said Katz, the Haredi parties "hold sway over the coming legislation and can try and dilute the court's decision."

Another possibility is introducing a new Haredi exemption law, which is "unlikely to pass," Jonathan Strum said at The Hill. Netanyahu will likely "slow-walk implementation of the court's order" and try to "soften the blow with increased subsidies or concessions in other areas."

What next?
If the ruling is enforced, it will be challenging for the army to "integrate a larger number of ultra-Orthodox deeply opposed to service into its ranks," The Associated Press said. The court did not set a specific enlistment number in the ruling, but Israel's attorney general's office suggested that at least 3,000 ultra-Orthodox soldiers enlist in the next year. The court's ruling said around 63,000 ultra-Orthodox students are eligible for enlistment. 

For years, Kenya has enjoyed one of the fastest-growing economies in Africa, but after a sweeping set of steep tax increases were passed by parliament, to combat the ballooning national debt and avoid crippling default, the nation has been roiled by days of civil unrest and deadly riots. Then this week, after nearly two-dozen protesters were killed in a march in Nairobi, Kenyan President William Ruto announced he would not sign into law the contentious tax bill. 

Having listened "keenly to the people of Kenya who have said loudly that they want nothing to do with this, I concede," he said on Wednesday. Although muted, anti-government protests have continued in Kenya despite Ruto's abrupt flip. 

'It pains me that we had to wait'
Ruto's decision not to sign Kenya's tax bill is a "major victory" for the "youth-led protest movement" that has morphed from "online condemnations of tax rises into mass rallies demanding a political overhaul," Reuters said. The president has "scuppered a great deal of goodwill," said Kenyan analyst Nanjala Nyabola to The New York Times. Although Ruto very well "might survive this moment, he has pushed Kenya into such deep, uncharted territory."

Ruto's announcement rejecting the tax bill "should have come earlier," Kenyan analyst Herman Manyora said to CNN. "He has done today what he should have done two days ago" to avoid this week's deaths. "It pains me that we had to wait."

"Some protesters have turned their attention to Ruto's resignation and are calling for the president to step down," Semafor said. Ruto "hasn't fired a single thief in his cabinet," said activist and protest leader Boniface Mwangi on X. "Even this 'reduced budget' will go into his people's pockets."

The 'Zakayo' president
Since his election in 2022, Ruto has been plagued by allegations of financial mismanagement and dishonesty, said the BBC. In anti-Ruto circles, the president is referred to mockingly as "Zakayo," the Swahili word for the "biblical figure Zacchaeus, who is portrayed in the Christian holy book as a greedy tax collector." 

It's a term Ruto himself has embraced, if only partially in jest. Given that, why would he reject his tax bill now? "I don't believe it is genuine," said Willis Okumu, a researcher at the Institute for Security Studies, to Al Jazeera. "I think he is just buying time."