Following the disqualification of the Tal Law last summer by the Israel Supreme Court, the IDF has been preparing to induct bnei yeshivos and this will begin in larger numbers this summer, in Av. While there is much discussion and emotion surrounding the various plans for drafting chareidim, it appears the military’s Personnel Branch is uninterested in bnei yeshivos from age 22 since drafting them is not cost effective.
While an official policy statement has yet to be announced, it appears likely that avreichim 22 and older will receive a deferment from military service. The IDF realizes that inducting older bnei Torah, those married with children into programs like Shachar is an expensive proposition, costing the military about 5,000 NIS monthly while a regular soldier receives hundreds of NIS monthly. This is supported by the findings of the Share the Burden Committee headed by Minister of Science (Yesh Atid) Yaakov Peri, which probed the matter and accepted the IDF’s conclusion that the handsome salary given to Shachar soldiers did little to encourage chareidi enlistment and even less to minimize draft evasion in that sector. The committee is also probing other chareidi draft related issues, including cooperation of mosdos. The committee has recommended to the IDF Personnel Branch to impose sanctions against any and all yeshivos failing to cooperate with the new draft reality. The committee will submit its official recommendations in about six weeks.
The IDF goal for chareidi induction in 2014 is 1,800-2,100 and this will increase to 2,400 in 2015 and remain at 2,400 in 2016.
The Personnel Branch is also recommending cutting assistance for married soldiers significantly, by 50%.
(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
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11 Responses
1. How many will show up? How many will refuse?
2. Will those who go in anyways still show up (meaning they would have been willing to volunteer, but not to be drafted)
3. Will those who do show up be good soldiers who follow orders and don’t make a fuss, or will they be a gigantic discipline problem who will refuse to follow orders that they feel conflict with their own minhagim and interpretations of halachas.
4. The hiloni press and websites believe that the percentage of hareidi conscripts showing up will be similar to the very high percentage of non-hareidim conscripts who show up, and that they will all be “good soldiers” similar to the existing hareidi unit. If in fact the result is widespread resistance and mutinous soldiers, they will be totally shocked and dismayed since they aren’t expecting it.
hopefully it will cause a revolt and bring moshiach good luck trying to shut down yeshivos anyone remember when Ehud barak called for a secular revolution…. we got intifada
Some of the posters continue the shrill,over the top reaction to the (mild) change in the law. Have any of the above posters actually read the article? “trying to shut down yeshivos”? “widespread resistance and mutinous soldiers” ?? READ THE ARTICLE. We are talking about 2400 poeple- a fraction (5% maybe?) of the bochurim in yeshivos. No talk about “shutting down yeshivos’. “mutinuy” etc…
Akuperma,
1. Who knows?
2. Why not?
3. It is impossible to run an army where everyone folows his own interpretation of Halacha. The IDF Chief Rabbinate is the mara d’atra and its pesakim must be followed.
4. I think the first scenario is correct. Now they have an excuse to do what they really want to do.
I have posed this question a few times and no one has answered it yet. If only those younger than 22 will be drafted, why won’t those above that age offer protection for Israel? They don’t count for anything?
As the able and literate can see, major changes have develop since the new government was established. At the moment all Bnei Torah over the age of 22 are exempted, & new developments change daily.
Perhaps the shrill can be reduced and hostility curtailed.
1. If they exempt everyone over 22, does that mean that if you stay in yeshiva for four years, you are allowed to take a job without being drafted. In effect, that turns learning four years in yeshiva into the equivalent of three years in the army (albeit at lower pay, but in a frum environment). In other words, learning Torah would be considered “alternative service” – which is a very frum way to look at it (since we know who is really defending the country – and its not the guys playing soldier) – however that isn’t what Lapid et al. mean by “sharing the burden”.
To #4 (on the point on army discipline)- in the past the only frum soldiers were volunteers who believed that by serving in the army they were defending the country – if they manage to draft the elite of the Torah world, many of whom believe that army service is a waste of time and totally counter productive they will have a serious discipline problem that could seriously undermine the army. To make it worse, the government proposes to draft those who think the army is counter productive, who will feel they are being oppressed and persecuted, and will give them automatic weapons and explosives.
Akuperma as much as it pains me to say this your words are truly hurtful. “In other words, learning Torah would be considered “alternative service” – which is a very frum way to look at it (since we know who is really defending the country – and its not the guys playing soldier)” Have you ever stood at a border at 3am in the freezing cold weather to make sure terrorists don’t cross. Have you ever had to miss your best friends wedding due to the fact that you had to go and arrest a terrorist who was planning on going on a suicide mission that same night.
Based on your comments I conclude that you have not. Dont get me wrong I think we need people learning in Yeshiva as well but you have no right to talk about the army and call someone who risks their life “a guy playing soldier.”
Secondly, you refer to the fact that they may be horrible listeners and not do what they are told. What ever happened to “derech eretz kadma latorah?” You must have skipped that part since you were so nervous about possibly having to give three years of your life to your country.
To all of you. Dont speak about what the army does if you did not serve.. It is hurtful to those of us who actually risked our lives so some of the members on this blog could sit at home and write these outlandish comments.
What about those who are not accepting assistance as of yet – what sanctions will be imposed on them if any
“sick and tired”
1. Actually, if the new rule is that anyone not drafted by age 22 is permanently exempt from military service, it would mean that spending four years in yeshiva is, de facto, fulfilling your military obligation. While it would accomplish the goal of getting hareidim increasingly in the secular economy (since at 22 they would be allowed to work at any job without getting arrested for draft evasion), it would fail to break the yeshiva community which is clearly a primary goal of the Israeli secularists.
2. If you go to the army in Israel, on discharge you enter a “first world” economy (meaning an American, European or Japanese style standard of living). If you go to yeshiva instead, you are largely doomed to a “third world” economic existence. It’s a choice. For those of us who believe that being Jewish is something to do with Torah and Mitsvos, it isn’t a real choice. Millions of Jews have considered that choice in the past, and chose the way that gave them a chance for a good life – occasionally we see one of their descendants coming to a baal tseuvah yeshiva.
3. The problems with terrorists began, not coincidentally, at the same time that the Jews in Eretz Yisrael starting to cut back on Torah and Mitsvos. Throughout our history, Jewish surival is a function of what the hareidim have done – not those who address problems in a “this world” way.
#10 where did you make up fact #3?
There was terrorism in pre-state Israel where the Torah learning was very sparse… Torah learning grew as did terrorism after the tutelege of PM Begin.