Taking part in a panel discussion hosted by Haifa University on Sunday, former IDF Chief Rabbi Brigadier-General Avichai Ronsky explained that he feels it will be very difficult for chareidim and secular soldiers to live side-by-side in a military environment. Ronsky cited two examples, kol isha at military ceremonies as well as the reality of meeting the kashrus standards of chareidim.
“Who needs the chareidim in the IDF? Who needs this headache? This will lead to major problems and there simply is no solution to this partnership”, Ronsky stated.
Ronsky added that if large numbers of chareidim enter the IDF, davka the chilonim will be in a panic for the chareidim already enlisting today are highly motivated. “If 60% of the chareidim are inducted the character of the military will change. The military will have a new look and reality and this is cause for concern among the secularists”.
Rabbi Dov Halbertal, who was also taking part in the panel added “The debate surrounding the induction of chareidim is immoral – it is discriminatory and there are those who say the chareidim are not needed. There are those who state that many secularists also do not serve so why can’t we do the same? These statements are immoral and discriminatory.”
Rabbi Halbertal added the ongoing political process towards compelling chareidim to serve is “hypocritical”.
“Compromise is hypocritical and will not result in sharing the burden. Supervision over yeshivos will be an outright lie. There is a struggle between the two cultures taking place in the country and they are far apart and differences are major. There is no solution to this problem. The rest is all politics and immoral tinkering with the problem”.
(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
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2 Responses
It’s possible to have a successful mulit-cultural army with one sub-culture in command in spite of the various groups hating each. Look at the Austro-Hungarian Empire in World War I.
P.S. For those who are truely ignorant of history, the above is an example of sarcasm.
We are in a transition period. At one time the majority of Jews in Israel really were Chillonim. Today the majority are Torah Jews.
There are many superficial differences between various types of Torah Jews but the common bound of Torah and commitment to live in Israel is stronger than the differences. Most Torah Jews do not mind that public standards of Kashurus, Shmeitah, or Tznius are more rigorous than what they personally observe. We are all willing to put up with such things for the sake of a harmonious public life. So most of the Army would not care or even notice if the IDF went “Hareidi” on such things.
The problem is power.
The real power in Israel is concentrated in a small group of fanatically, anti-Torah elitists. They believe that they are inherently superior to the rest of humanity by virtue of their saying so. They understand that to allow such an open and obvious challenge to their authority will quickly lead to the end of their rule. So they bluster and bluff and call names and hope that this Hareidi nightmare will just go away. It won’t but what has gone away are their children and their hope of replacing the Torah with their arrogance.