According to Israel Radio Reshet Bet military correspondent Carmela Menasha, enforcement of a new draft law reality mustn’t fall on the back of the military, but the national government. She explains that the military is not equipped for such an assignment, lacking a military police force and infrastructure that can run around the country and begin arresting chareidim en masse. The only way such a system can be enforced is by the national government imposing monetary sanctions against draft evaders.
ISRAEL RADIO: Is the IDF capable and ready to begin inducting thousands of chareidim next month, in August 2012?
MENASHE: IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Benny Gantz says he is, but I can tell you this is not the case. can you expect an IDF chief to give you a different response? I am telling you however that the IDF cannot absorb thousands of new chareidi recruits in the coming weeks or months.
There will be a need for another Bakum induction & absorption center as well as additional induction centers around the country. The IDF cannot come close to absorbing 60,000 chareidim in the near future.
The IDF has yet to begin formulating a serious plan to address this new reality. One cannot expect such radical a change from one day to the next.
Today for example, a chareidi soldier cannot receive glatt food for this is far more expensive. The proper budgets, kitchens and other logistics must first be put into place before large numbers of chareidim can be drafted.
ISRAEL RADIO: So the bottom line is the IDF is not ready?
MENASHE: The IDF says it is ready but I am telling this simply is not the case. It cannot and will not occur overnight
(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
Join the official YWN WhatsApp status
11 Responses
So, lets see. The Israeli Government wants to:
(1) forcibly induct people who do not wish to join the IDF;
(2) in the numbers and timeframe it cannot absorb;
(3) with attitudes and culture that are unadaptable to those of the IDF;
(4) into a non-existent infrastructure to support and maintain them, which, if built will take longer than (2) and break the Israeli budget.
Makes sense.
no govt benefits. no travel. no driverslicense. no arnonaa discount. no travel outside the country. untill you follo the law.
to #1
No problem
just understand if they give zero to the state the state will give them zero
Although I am not exactly happy about the impending draft, I do think it’s going a little too far to say that it can not be enforced. This is nO different than any other country’s draft. America had a draft with a lot more diverse crowd and more racial and religious considerations.
If Israel wants to induct the chareidim, they can surely do it.
We, here in Israel, call it “Israbloff”!!
The army not only is incapable of inducting 60,000 chareidim, it doesn’t want to! They don’t have what to do with 60,000 unwilling, unadaptable frummers. The government is certainly not planning to donate the extra 100’s of millions of shekels necessary to provide all the infrastructure and extras that are needed too. So what are we left with? Israbloff!! Lots of hot air talk with nothing behind it….
It pains me to read the comments of so many american readers who from their comfortable armchairs, surrounded by their non-military children, have the chutzpa to agree with the Israeli bloffers. Besides the total lack of yiddishe hashkofas that I would expect to see on this site, the hypocrisy is sickening.
I understand the pain of a chiloni parent who sends his son to fight in the army, I sympathise and worry with them for the safety and life of their child. I only regret that these people do not understand or appreciate the value of limmud haTorah. The hatred that spews from the writings of some american commentators is pure sinas amei ha’aretz for talmidei chachomim and that is so much more painful. The Israelis who are fighting for this draft have a valid reason (even if misguided in my opinion), you americans are pure reshoim.
#3, so you think their Torah is zero?! You are zero. More importantly, a state that takes that attitude is zero, and one must really wonder by what merit does it deserve to survive, ch”v.
#4 America has never contemplated and could never contemplate drafting so many people with religious objections. If they can’t provide the minimum religious requirements, what charedim consider non-negotiable halacha, then the charedim will simply not go, and will have to be dragged to prison camps, which will inevitably be compared to those in other regimes. It can’t be done.
#2 straightshooter: So your ‘law’ takes precedence over G-d’s Torah? If G-d treated those who flout His Torah laws with the attitude that you advocate for man-made laws, we’d be in a LOT of trouble!
#3 peakman: The state (actually the entire UNIVERSE to be accurate) only exists because of people learning and following Torah. That’s not my opinion, it’s G-d’s (see Rashi on the very first word in the Torah). So let’s see, according to your logic – the state actually owes the Torah observant population EVERYTHING simply for living the way they live! But no-one is asking for even a fraction of that, only to be treated no less than everyone else and to able to get on with their lives the way the Torah says we all should live. TORAH STUDY PROTECTS THE ARMY – NOT THE OTHER WAY AROUND!!
#5, no country would put with the Israeli Chareidim’s behavior!
35,Did you think that these Americans may mean le’shem Shamaim and think that you are wrong!
#8 mdd: No country has the ZECHUS to have living in it people as high-quality as the G-d fearing population of Eretz Yisrael
Mdd (No.8 and 9): From your first comment I see that you totally believe all the anti-Torah media that you are obviously exposed to. Just recently there was a large illegal demonstration from the left-wing (about the high-cost of living in Israel) in Tel Aviv that went violent and the hooligans smashed and looted stores including a bank. The police eventually regained control after arresting a few demonstrators. The following day the media was all against the police and for the violent illegal demonstrators. When the chareidim demonstrate legally, the media will do its utmost to decry the violent chareidim (who did nothing wrong) and applaud the police for hitting the “parasites”.
You, mdd, have fallen in to the hole that these left wing media provacateurs have dug for you and I feel sorry for you. Thank you Ido (#10) for stating the obvious true answer. The reason that those media chilonim hate the chareidim has nothing to do with the army – they themselves never did army service (check Yair Lapid, for example) – they hate them for being so high-quality and G-d fearing, it irks them and portrays the emptiness and uselessness of their lives.
What “le’shem Shamaim” are you referring to in your second comment? To speak contrary to all Gedolei Yisroel of all sections, to support the actions of the anti-chareidim, to even try to reduce the amount of limmud haTorah in the world, that can be le’shem Shamaim???? As I said in my previous comment, I can understand the misguided Israeli chiloni who fights this battle against us – he has a son or daughter in the trenches – but what excuse do you, armchair religous zionist, have to speak the way you do?