While chareidi lawmakers and influence peddlers tried their best, they knew from the get go that Bayit Yehudi was going to align itself with Yesh Atid and vote for criminal sanctions. It was clear for Yesh Atid leaders announced if this did not pass they would bring down the government and Bayit Yehudi is not looking to head to the polls.
However, Bayit Yehudi MKs have found a way to sanitize their decision, to save face with the chareidim, explaining there was a compromise achieved with Yesh Atid. The criminal sanctions, i.e. sending a talmid who fails to report for induction to jail, will only be implemented after a half a year. Bayit Yehudi officials explain the significance of the six-month stay. If during that time the annual chareidi induction quota has been met, then criminal sanctions will not be levied against talmidim who did not comply with the draft law.
Opponents to the six-month stay feel this will only encourage chareidim not to comply with the draft, for if they wait they may not have to serve. Others cynically add the six month period is designed to permit an avreich to get affairs into order before being imprisoned.
(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
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6 Responses
It’s a stall tactic in the hope of continuous stalls until the topic is forgotten or a way out is found.
As long as prison is “on the table”, the issue simmers. Of course, if they define “hareidi” broadly enough, they can fill their quotas without difficulty (which might be a face saving way for the zionists to back down).
#2- If they define “hareidi” broadly enough, it defeats the purpose of drafting them in the first place…
Shaked suggested 2000 haredi yeshiva registrants this year for conscription, 3500 next year, and 4000 the following year as a cap. I spoke to a senior IDF rabbi last week at a military rabbi’s conference (I’m a US Air Force rabbi). He informed me that the number of Haredi enlistees,who come in through regular means each year is far in excess of those 2-4000.
Could somebody explain the logic that Chareidi MKs are proposing: why a chiloni should go to jail if he refuses to go to an induction center but a chareidi should only receive a monetary fine?
Would the Chiloni then be able to don a black kippa to avoid imprisonment? And if the draft law gets changed that no one will go to jail, just pay a fine — none of the wealthy citizens will need to enlist in the IDF — they’ll just pay the fine.
#3- that is the idea – its a face saving way for the government to avoid the problems of mass arrests – From their figures, about half of all persons who were ever exempted eventually serve in the army or do alternative service — they just count those who would serve anyways (i.e. future baal ha-habattim who are not anti-zionist), and leave the bnei yeshiva and the anti-zionists alone
#5- a non-Arab hiloni who chooses not to serve in the army does do out of laziness and greed, not based on any sort of ideological conviction. Secular draft dodgers tend to be the sorts who would be horrified if Israel were to be a Arab Muslim state. A significant part of Hareidi draft resistors believe the Medinah is contrary to Torah, the war is illegal, and they are prohibited from participating in it (under the doctrine of “dvrei ha-rav, dvrei ha-talmid…), and those hareidim can legitimately say they would be better of if Israel became the Islamic Republic of Palestine (at least if the choice involves an Israel that drafts hareidi yeshiva students).