Israel – The crisis in Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s government surrounding criminal sanctions for draft dodgers intensified Tuesday night, after lawyers representing Likud and Yesh Atid failed to reach a compromise.
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The six ministers on the committee examining the issue of equalizing the burden, led by Science, Technology and Space Minister Yaakov Peri, will meet Wednesday morning for the first time since a late night meeting on Sunday ended in a fierce dispute.
Yesh Atid leader Yair Lapid canceled a trip to an OECD meeting of finance ministers in Paris due to the crisis.
“From our perspective, there is no compromising,” a source close to Lapid said.
“Everyone in [Likud] understands that we will not compromise on our principles.”
A separate source within Yesh Atid confirmed Peri was continuing to insist that criminal sanctions remain a part of the proposed bill once it is fully enacted, if haredi enlistment targets in the three-year interim period are not met.
Associates of Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon confirmed that there is no update on the wording of a controversial clause in the bill that would mandate how to draft yeshiva students and punish those who evade service. But Ya’alon himself expressed optimism that a compromise could still be reached.
“The conflict can be overcome and I hope we will succeed,” Ya’alon told reporters in Ramle. “There is dialogue, and I believe that ultimately the wording will change, because the initial wording was unacceptable for me. I hope we will draft something that will enable us to avoid future coalition conflicts.”
Ya’alon criticized Lapid’s methods for drafting yeshiva students and warned that they would be counter-productive.
“Unfortunately there are those who do not understand the sensitivity of making such a change,” he said.
“It cannot be done by law or by sword. When sectors of the population are threatened with jail, the progress that has been made in increasing the numbers who serve will be reversed.”
Construction and Housing Minister Uri Ariel, who is on the Peri Committee, took Likud’s side in the dispute, saying that Yesh Atid changed its view on how to sanction draft dodgers for political reasons.
Ariel will vote against the clause in the bill if criminal sanctions remain a part of it.
Justice Minister Tzipi Livni criticized Lapid for different reasons. She accused him of “surrendering to [Bayit Yehudi leader Naftali] Bennett” on adding only one month to the service time of national religious soldiers in hesder yeshivot.
“It is hypocrisy to call this equalizing the burden,” Livni said. “Instead of full dodging of haredim you will have partial dodging of the national-religious.”
Content is provided courtesy of the Jerusalem Post
Yes, after big fights, when hareidim get their way, then all the national religous will want the same, and then everyone else will become frum and refuse to serve.
Israel will be left with a few soldiers who will not be interested in defending most other Israelis.
In the end, this will be good, if it means that most yidden in Israel be learning torah.
nothing could be better!
Orthodox Jews in New York are rallying in support of their counterparts in Jerusalem, who are currently facing the prospect of conscription into the Israeli army. The Orthodox community in the Holy Land views the Israeli government’s plan to draft them as a direct attack on their freedom of religion.According to the Torah, G-d commanded the Jewish people in this era not to fight any wars against other nations. The current Israeli government plans to force the Orthodox to violate their conscience and principles. They should be exempt just like the Israeli Arabs, whom the Israelis do not expect to fight against their Arab brethren.
Some argue that the Orthodox must share the burden because they too are being protected by the Israeli army. But the truth is that they were living there a hundred years before the Zionist movement even began. The Orthodox community lived peacefully alongside the Arabs in the 1800s. It was Zionism that gave rise to the current conflict, so they should not expect the Orthodox to help them deal with the problem they created.
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Continue,
Furthermore, a large percentage of the Orthodox live in Jerusalem, which the international community, including the United States, has never recognized as part of the State of Israel. In 1947 the United Nations designated all of Jerusalem and its environs as an international zone. Thus the Israelis do not have the right to force Jews living in that zone to serve in their army.
Historically, Orthodox young men have avoided serving in the Israeli army, often using their ongoing study in a religious academy, known as a yeshiva, as an excuse for exemption. But last year, after the Israeli supreme court struck down the law granting yeshiva students exemption, the Orthodox community was left without a legal means of avoiding service. The current government is preparing a plan to draft some or all of the Orthodox in the near future. Most in the Orthodox community would rather go to jail or emigrate from the country than be drafted. Ironically, the so-called “Jewish state” is becoming the most difficult place in the world for Jews to follow their traditional laws and beliefs.
The Orthodox in the Holy Land have the Torah, international law and justice on their side
The Orthodox in the Holy Land have the Torah, international law and justice on their side,they will fight, and we will fight for them, until they prevail and are free to continue living according to their beliefs
money – quote from above posted ignorant, ahistorical drivel:
“They should be exempt just like the Israeli Arabs, whom the Israelis do not expect to fight against their Arab brethren. “