Englishman – apples and oranges. I don’t disagree with your statement that Israel needs spiritual capital as well as material capital, only with how it is distributed, and with the assumption that they are mutually exclusive. They aren’t for talmidim in Hesder Yeshivos, nor for those frum Jews doing sherut leumi.
Health – you and I have gone around and around on this a million times. I’m not going to change your mind, and you won’t change mine. But I would like to clarify for you that I’ve had opportunity to talk with Politicians from across the spectrum over the years, including Shimon Peres, Bibi, Yitzchak Herzog from Labour, Natan Sharansky when he was an MK and minister with Yisrael B’Aliyah, Yael Dayan from Meretz, Ehud Olmert from Kadima, and many others. At the time I discussed these matters with many of them, they were all open to alternative suggestions, provided the commitment was made for some kind of service, be it in Chareidi units in the IDF, chareidi affiliated Hesder yeshivos, Sherut work in hospitals, schools, and absorbtion centers, etc. The fact that Plesner came back so harshly is at least in large part due to the rejectionist approach of most of the chareidi leadership to even discussing possible alternatives.