MK (Yahadut Hatorah) asks Yair Lapid and his colleagues where they plan to imprison 100,000 chareidim. Moses explained to Knesset that when the rabbonim give the word, the entire chareidi tzibur will head to prison in defiance of his new chareidi draft law for he and others will not compel chareidim to serve against their will and the will of the rabbonim shlita.
Moses then directs his remarks to Yair Lapid, explaining he is a grandson on R’ Dovid Giladi, who like himself was affiliated with Vishnitz. Moses explained that unlike Lapid and others who feel too many children are a burden on the economy, Giladi has 18 children, one of which being Lapid’s grandfather and “B”H look what a fine upstanding grandson came from these ancestors”, he commented, resulting in a laugh from those present.
In his comments on the chareidi draft, outgoing Shas MK Nissim Ze’ev says that the day will come Lapid and others will regret having chareidim in the military. In a humorous tone he adds the ‘Nachnachim’ will dance and the ‘Meshichisti’ Chabadnikim will teach everyone to recite “Yechi HaMelech”, while frum soldiers who see female soldiers will shout “pritzus” and there will court cases surrounding the unacceptable actions of chareidim in the military.
Ze’ev concludes that the fact is, should the chareidim agree to enter the IDF in large numbers, it will not take long for the military to beg them to leave.
(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
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4 Responses
It is patently impossible to compel anyone to be a soldier. For a person to become a “good” soldier, he’s got to cooperate with the drill sergeant as he molds the squad, and afterwards the platoon, and finally the company, the regiment, the brigade, etc. into a cohesive fighting unit. It cannot and will not work any other way. Anyone not willing to cooperate in this training will have to be released from service. Otherwise, he will break down discipline within the group and diminish the authority of the drill sergeant and ultimately the squad leader, the platoon, company and brigade commander. No army, including the IDF, can possibly function otherwise. It can try to “persuade”
–Sorry first message was send prematurely. This is the whole posting.
It is patently impossible to compel anyone to be a soldier. For a person to become a “good” soldier, he’s got to cooperate with the drill sergeant as he molds the squad, and afterwards the platoon, and finally the company, the regiment, the brigade, etc. into a cohesive fighting unit. It cannot and will not work any other way. Anyone not willing to cooperate in this training will have to be released from service. Otherwise, he will break down discipline within the group and diminish the authority of the drill sergeant and ultimately the squad leader, the platoon, company and brigade commander. No army, including the IDF, can possibly function otherwise. It can try to “persuade” the conscript to cooperate, it can imprison him in a military stockade, it can even try to punish him physically. But at the end of the day, if the conscript is determined not to cooperate, he cannot be retained in the unit, or any unit. He is undermining the training and operative capabilities of the rest of the unit, and the entire army. He will probably receive a dishonorable discharge, but I can’t imagine too many chareidi yeshiva boys caring about that.
I believe that since 1948, the IDF has recognized this, and as a rule has NEVER insisted upon drafting the chareidi bnei yeshiva en masse. Truth to tell, in 1948-49 when there was a manpower shortage, and again in 1973 (in the wake of the Yom Kippur War) the army raised the issue with the Vaad HaYeshivos, but the gedolim who sat on the Vaad successfully repulsed the army’s attempts. Aside from that, the military recognizes that unless the talmidei hayeshivos are willing to cooperate, it’s pretty much a lost cause. It has always been solely a political issue, and the new legislation that Lapid pushed through last year is no different. Unless the state of Israel is willing and able to incarcerate thousands of yeshiva boys, the new law is in reality not enforceable. In any case, something tells me that the sight of thousands of religious seminary students being rounded up and jailed on the evening news will not do much for Israel’s public image abroad.
And just for the record, the figure “a hundred thousand chareidim” is seriously exaggerated. There are probably around 40,000 yeshiva students receiving a deferment (presently not legal, but “status undetermined” until the army decides what to do). This substantial number includes every kollel yungerman up to the age of about 40, at which time he is officially “released” from the obligation of military service, and is removed from the list of “deferees.” Certain secular groups are of course interested in portraying as large a number as possible of those receiving deferment. The truth, however, is that the army would only be interested in drafting people up to about the age of 28-30. Young fellows, preferably single are useful to the army. Older yungeleit (probably not in prime physical condition) with 6-10 children are not even under consideration. So there are really not so many talmidei yeshivos that the army could actually consider drafting.
Bottom line: leave the yeshiva bochurim alone to learn. Without coercive legislation, those that choose to leave yeshiva will probably be drafted anyway, without all the hoopla. That’s what was going on until Lapid pushed the new law, Which probably has almost no chance of being enforced on a large-scale basis. So the honorable chareidi Knesset delegates can relax a bit!
1. They could use excess bases. They could them camps. WHen they round them up they could it an “action.” It would have much precedence. Many other countries have build camps to round up undesirable elements in the population. Indeed, it is only a crime against humanity if you lose a war to some who is more self-righteous than you.
2. The hilonim are really hoping to chase the hareidim away – to get them to move to another country. Of course, in the 1930s, that was the Nazi’s original intention.
3. The liklihood is the next government will cancel the plan. Perhaps they don’t really want to be nazis. Perhaps because they need hareidi votes. The only quesition is whether the nationalist (right) block will do it, or will they force the hareidim to ally with the Israeli leftists to do so (with the inevitable “payback” to the nationalists, probably in form of a Palestinian state and removal of all West Bank communities).
Easy. They’ll release all the arab prisoners and hardened Israeli ones too as long as they can imprison the Chareidim – the real criminals.