Coalition talks continued on Monday 1 Adar 5773 between Likud/Beitenu and potential coalition partners Yesh Atid and Bayit HaYehudi. Likud/Beitenu has formulated its own plan, one that was presented during the talks, a plan that was prepared by Professor Eugene Kandel in the hope of persuading the two parties to accept it.
Maariv explains the main point of contention may rest in the fact that unlike Yesh Atid’s plan setting a ceiling of a maximum of 400 bnei yeshivos permitted to continue learning annually, this plan does not set a cap on that number. It addresses IDF goals for induction from the chareidi community. Once the numbers are satisfied, it is irrelevant how many bnei Torah continue to learn.
The plan would result in over a 50% increase in chareidi recruitment from the 18-24-year-old age bracket, a move that Likud/Beitenu feels is quite significant. The target goal is five years. Likud/Beitenu official explain the Yesh Atid plan only begins in five years while this plan begins to increase the draft number from the chareidi tzibur immediately.
Sanctions for non-compliance would be system wide, leveled against all the yeshivos. That means all the budgets of chareidi mosdos would suffer in response to a failure to achieve target recruitment numbers. “The chareidim will not accept this and they will even protest it,” Maariv quotes Likud/Beitenu officials as saying, adding “At the end this plan is doable.”
The plan calls for the establishment of new civilian and military programs that are more chareidi friendly to accommodate the lifestyle of the new recruits. Likud/Beitenu officials feel the Lapid plan is problematic from a legal standpoint and it is unlikely to withstand a High Court appeal, primarily because of the sanctions. That plan would cut government assistance to individuals that do not comply with the directive to serve.
Maariv quotes Yesh Atid officials’ reaction to the proposal, and they feel it lacks the teeth to compel people to serve as it should; and it fails to define numbers, to state goals regarding chareidi recruitment. “This is not even an improved Ya’alon plan” they are quoted as saying. “It is based on economics and not the law. It is simply irrelevant.”
(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
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2 Responses
There is only one solution, abolish the draft.
Again, the Lapid plan is focused on trying to “break” up the Torah world. Given the demographics this is there last chance. Given the high birth rates of Hareidim, and low birthrates (and high percentage of gays) among hilonim – if they don’t act soon Israel will become a Jewish state by the end of the 21st century (imagine Gafne as prime minister, Deri as opposition leader, and Likud and Labor being small factions begging for patronage but forever excluded from power).