The Bayit Yehudi faction in Knesset met on Monday, 24 Adar I 5774 and the majority voted to oppose the new draft bill in Knesset if the bill contains criminal sanctions against bnei Torah. The faction members are well aware that such a move would result in a coalition crisis with Yesh Atid and possibly lead to the fall of the coalition government.
MK Moti Yogev told Galei Yisrael Radio “We cannot give a hand towards harming the Torah world”. He added there are other components of the draft law that remain a subject of controversy among party members.
Yogev added the current draft law will also harm the IDF because the mandatory service for men was reduced from 36 to 32 months while the Shaked Committee did not accept the IDF recommendation to increase the service of women to compensate and towards equality in the IDF. “I cannot support something that harms the IDF” he concluded. Yogev is a retired colonel.
(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
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3 Responses
Bayit yehudi should have had this vote before the committee vote last week. The fact that they are having it now is too little too late. Since Meretz and Labor, no doubt, will vote for criminal sanctions, their vote will not be needed.
#1- At the end of the day the Knesset must vote the entire bill up or down. When that time comes, and if Habayit Hayehudi indeed decides not to vote for the bill in the Knesset as reported above (a very big ‘if’ indeed) – are you sure that Labor and Meretz will help pass it? I’m not so sure.
After all, despite the public histrionics of the charedi politicians, the proposed bill is far and away more favorable to them then they could ever have hoped for and it falls far, far short of what the Israeli public – including specifically the constituents of Labor and Meretz – are seeking. Why would Labor and Meretz vote for a bill that they are truly opposed to? Just in order to save Netanyahu’s coalition? I don’t think so.
Furthermore, if the bill fails we do not return to a vacuum. As the Supreme Court has pointed out there is already a law in place and it requires all charedi males of draftable age to serve with no further delay and it contains criminal sanctions which are immediate – unlike the proposed bill which delays criminal sanctions for years and then ties them up in such conditions that virtually ensure that they will never be applicable halacha lemaiseh. While the new law was being negotiated the Supreme Court de facto agreed to allow the Minister of Defense not to apply the current law. But, should the proposed law fail, the Minister of Defense will have no choice but to begin to apply it, no matter how strenuously opposed he is to doing so. Are you sure that Labor and Meretz will support the bill in order to help Yaalon out? I doubt it.
All of the above is surely clear to the MKs of the Bayit Hayehudi. So, will they really oppose the bill in the Knesset? Time will tell, but I am less than sanguine.
Akuperma please help?!? Considering who they really are, I don’t understand how could they vote against criminal sanctions? Who is this Moti Yogev character fooling. His voting against criminal sanctions must prove that he really wants them…