Rocky:
Israel is not currently a theocracy in which we will be able to create laws based on pesukim or statements of chazal.
Which is wrong. It should be a Jewish theocracy. We don’t dismiss the wrongdoings against Jews by Czarist Russia or the Soviet Union because it isn’t a theocracy or a Jewish state. Neither should we dismiss the wrongdoings of the non-Jewish zionist entity simply because it isn’t a theocracy.
1) The country needs an army to exist.
Chareidim didn’t ask for this country. We lived in Eretz Yisroel before the zionists and before their state. The zionists created this disaster of a state that now has been under constant unending attacks for 75+ years. They need to deal with the mess they made.
2) The country is made up of a majority of people who either do not view Torah learning as a valid form of protecting the country
And they are dead wrong. There is no reason to change our position and the truth simply because the majority of people have a wrongheaded and incorrect view.
3) The current concept of exemption for full-time learners (i.e the status quo) was created as half-hearted concession at a time when the situation was totally different than today (400 vs 66,000)
There’s no reason to reduce what so-called “concession”; indeed, there’s every reason to increase and enlarge than “concession”.
4) There is no way of knowing numbers, but there are many chareidim who are gaming the system and not really learning full time but still take advantage of exemptions
Baruch Hashem for that. No Chareidi should be in the army. Even if they are a full time baal haboss working full-time. Let them find every loophole that works, even not as designed, to avoid an army full of pritzus.
5) There are many in the general Israeli population who have grown angrier and angrier at the Chareidi population because of issues 2,3 & 4 and also because of the money given to yeshivas. The war has exacerbated this anger and the PR response from the charedim has not helped.
5) There are many in the Chareidi population who have grown angrier and angrier at the Chiloni population because of the answers given to issues 2,3 & 4 and also because of the money given to Israeli universities and sports leagues. The Chiloni hate-mongering has exacerbated this anger and the PR response from the Chilonim has not helped.
Refusing to negotiate in any way will only last for a short time.
There’s nothing to negotiate. If they want to impose a non-negotiated draft against Bnei Yeshiva, they should start building new prisons to house tens of thousands of Yeshivaleit who will become draft-dodgers who will choose prison over the zionist army.
if that means cutting short the vacation time (which is much longer than the rest of the working population), might be a good start.
Sure. Cut back vacation time of soldiers.
Even a well placed “thank you” would go a long way
The Bnei Torah have long been waiting for that “thank you” from the chilonim. It would, indeed, be a good start.
Mnay within this same majority are resentful of the chareidim
A majority of the world is antisemitic; are you suggesting we accommodate their antisemitism since they are a majority? A plurality of the world is Christian; are you suggesting Yidden accommodate Christian minhagim?