Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu refused to meet with the heads of the Charedi parties on Tuesday, in order to discuss the newly drafted conscription law, which was expected to be voted upon in the Knesset plenum on Wednesday morning for its first reading.
Netanyahu’s refusal is widening the rift that has formed between the Charedi parties and the Likud party. An additional factor that widened the rift was the publication of a video clip of Charedi party leaders from UTJ who were caught on film blaming the difficulties in passing the conscription law on the propaganda of Tourism Minister Yariv Levin of the Likud. The video was published by Bhadrei Charedim
At the same time that this rift is forming with Likud, Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman and the Yisrael Beiteinu party continued their attempts to block the conscription law from passing this morning when Lieberman wrote: “With regards to the enlistment and conscription of Charedim the position of Yisrael Beiteinu is clear and transparent. We will only support a law that is created by the professional staff assembled by the Defense Ministry.
“When I first met with the assembled team I told them the following: “That I, like all other politicians have an agenda and that they must ignore that. Their agenda needs to be one thing and one thing only, the welfare of the IDF and the State of Israel. As a member of t he government coalition, Yisrael Beiteinu is willing to compromise on a lot of issues. But one issue we will not compromise on and that is the security of the state of Israel,” Lieberman said.
“Therefore, any attempt to bring forth a politicized law with regards to this weighty issue will be met with fierce opposition from every member of our party and from all of our friends in the government and the Knesset. I hope that everyone involved will succeed at ignoring electoral incentives and only weigh the matter based on security considerations.
(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)
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3 Responses
Does Leiberman really think anyone believes his double-talk hog wash? Charedim aren’t needed in the IDF.And everyone conveniently forgets about another large segment of Israeli citizens that don’t serve– namely Israeli Arabs but somehow they can pass laws that exclude them from forced IDF service.
Perhaps the Chareidim would simply prefer to be relocated to some portion of Judia/Samaria where they can live side-by-side with the Palestinians and work out they own “security” arrangements. It is absolutely a waste of resources and unfair burden on the rest of the Israeli tizbur that even one young man/woman of the IDF should be deployed to “protect” these ehrliche yidden who don’t seem able or willing to find some way to serve (even if they would offer to work in some form of alternative service). Its time to stop playing these games and give them what they want. There will be no risk in relocating them to yena velt since they have assured us that their learning alone provides all the need protection from terrorists etc.
Gadolhadorah-you become more antisemitic everyday. Also know that people who hate the King’s loyal servants, hate the King Himself.