Israel's Kadima party, the largest faction in the governing coalition, voted Tuesday to quit the government in a row over exempting ultra-Orthodox Jews from national service, dpa, monitored in Riyadh quoted sources in Israel as confirming. The Kadima caucus voted 25 to 3 to leave the coalition after party head Shaul Mofaz told them that there was "no choice" but to break up the 10-week-old partnership with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud, after negotiations on a new universal national and military service law failed, the German news agency explained. Mofaz told reporters after the vote that he rejected the latest proposal offered by Netanyahu, which called for ultra-Orthodox Jews and Arab-Israelis to join the army or perform national service, such as serving in police or fire units, by ages 23 to 26 - rather than by age 22, as proposed by Kadima.
