Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman established a special committee within the Defense Department with the goal of drafting a new memorandum regarding the conscription of Charedi soldiers. However, much to the surprise of the Charedi members of Knesset, he did not inform any of them regarding the committee nor are any Charedim on the committee to give advice.

Serving as the committee chair is the legal advisor to the Defense Ministry, Attorney Itai Ophir, together with representatives of the HR department, legal department and Rabbinate of the IDF as well as the department for security and social welfare of the Defense Ministry.  The committee is to present its draft to the Defense Minister who will review it and then decide whether or not to submit it as a draft of a bill to the government and the Knesset.

“Enlistment into the IDF is too important of a concept to turn it into a political fracas focusing on garnering votes. Therefore, I wanted professionals from the military and the Defense Ministry to draft this bill, without any political intervention or machinations. I want their focus to be only on drafting a bill that will be for the betterment of the State of Israel and its populace,” Lieberman said.

During a Yisrael Beiteinu party meeting a few weeks ago Lieberman said that he will not accept a drafted bill on the topic from the Charedi parties. “I will only accept a draft from staff at the Defense Ministry,” he said.

A senior member of one of the Charedi parties told Kikar Shabbos news service that: “There are coalition agreements in place regarding the conscription law. The matter is not in the hands of Lieberman. The committee that he established will have no affect. It seems that Lieberman just wants to make noise.”

Bichadrei Charedim website reported that the Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said in a closed Likud meeting that: “The matter of the conscription law is not one that we are sitting idly by and doing nothing about. I certainly hope it doesn’t come to that either.”

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)