To date, Yahadut Hatorah MKs have announced the party’s rabbonim Shlita cannot and will not accept the Kandel draft plan for chareidim as it was presented to them in coalition talks before Purim.
A number of points included in the plan that were not released earlier are now being revealed.
1. Biometric scanners will be installed in yeshivos and all talmidim will have to sign in and out daily.
2. The scanners will be monitored by a central supervisory authority, and at any time during the day a yeshiva may be called and instructed to call a specific talmid to have him swipe his finger on the scanner to confirm his presence in the beis medrash.
3. From 2014-2019 a growing number of talmidim ages 18-24 will leave their limudim for IDF or national service. Failure to comply will result in penalizing the yeshiva or kollel’s funding.
4. If talmidim leave a yeshiva/kollel for unspecified reasons, that yeshiva/kollel will be marked for special monitoring by the system.
5. If talmidim/avreichim comply with regulations, the yeshiva/kollel will continue to receive funding for that person and he too will continue to receive payment.
6. If a talmid/avreich leaves without prior notice, the yeshiva/kollel and talmid/avreich will be fined.
Ladaat reports that a Yahadut Hatorah official responded by explaining “this is a trick of theirs for they know in the past we did not accept this and we will not accept now. This will give Netanyahu the excuse for abandoning his natural coalition partner. He will explain he was left without an alternative as he must build a coalition. They will have an explanation for betraying the chareidim.”
(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
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9 Responses
so they would call for a bachur during a shiur klali, disrupting the whole shiur
Totally unacceptable for many reasons. It doesn’t address what to do with those who refuse to serve in the army since they consider the state to be treff, and are saying they are too busy learning (not really a lie, since most frum Jews spend much time learning as a matter of nature) to avoid a confrontation. This is the Satmar or Eidis hareidis crowds. They will seriously resist conscription. Only some sort of conscientious status will resolve this.
The plan also requires the yeshivos to gradually to adjust to the idea that most of the students will eventually go to the army, with penalties for non-compliance. This will be unacceptable even to the pro-zionists who have no problem taking government money.
There is also no serious plan to accomodate hareidi lifestyles and halachic interpretation in the army.
At best, the plan will end the “natural alliance” between nationalist parties and the hareidim (though in all fairness, the hareidim have always been on the “left” in terms of economic and welfare state issue, and have never shared the racist desire to “ethnically cleanse” the Palestinians), and lead to the hareidim being closer to Labor and the Arab parties (who also oppose conscription and favor a welfare state).
At worst (and this occurs if the government tries to arrest draft resistors, or engages in more economic sanctions beyond cutting off yeshiva subsidies), it will move the hareidim “off the board” such that their only likely alliance is with the other Arabs (meaning that the “anti-zionist” block will start at 25% of the kenesset, which is a huge number. It’s unlikely the zionists are so dumb, but they could surprise us.
I can understand the government wanting to protect their
investment. So as soon as they spend the trillions installing these
machines in the universities, sports teams, drama clubs, police
stations, kneset, bus routes, army bases, and everywhere else they
throw a lot more money at, I guess there might be some kind of
discussion.
to israeli chareidi; I am not sure what your beef is.In private industry ,it is the norm to monitor the employees and to know whether they are on the job. this is the essence of the idea- to make sure that the people who gt the money are indeed in the place they are supposed to be. On army bases, on bus routes nd others, the employer/hirer ahs the right to know where its employess/inductees are. same here.
The only issue I see here is number 3. Why shouldn’t the government be able to monitor Yeshivas to watch out for Shababniks who make up (according to some accounts) some 5 to 10 percent of “Kollel Yungerlite”? Even number 3 isn’t so outrageous, it’s only the wording that’s problematic. It’s simply a bill to cut partial funding to Yeshivas that don’t send their talmidim to the army. Considering that non-Israeli yeshivas get only a percentage of the government funding that Israeli yeshivas get, maybe the Israeli yeshivas should start looking into alternate funding sources?
to rabbiofberlin
Like I said. I have no problem with protecting an investment. I do have a problem with a double standard. If it was their policy to monitor all their contributions in this manner then I understand. But they don’t.
They make it sound like the’re bankrolling the entire chareidi population instead of throwing them a few hundred shekel a month. What would Bibi say if we demanded that he account for every minute and shekel that he spends – which is, in fact, bankrolled by our taxes 100%.
There is a difference between a Yeshiva and university student in Israel in that those in yeshivas or kollel are there forever and those in University for a very limited period of time. So I don’t think they can be compared in terms of implementing similar measures. In university, if the student slacks off, he flunks and won’t remain while in Yeshivah or Kollel would go unnoticed.
israeli chareidi: I am not sure that there is a double standard. a bus driver who does not appear at his route and is a recividist will get fired. A soldier that does nto obey orders will be punished. and in the private sector, this is even more acute. so, I don’t see any double standard, unless you think that the biometrics are too intrusive- get used to it, it is coming everywhere.
as far as tax dollars- bibi and the government have to account for their budgets every year and you can throw them out at every election.
Not all avreichim are in kollel for life. I would venture to say that the majority are not. An avreich who slacks off will be asked to leave as well. After all, the bulk of his salary comes from the Rosh Kollel’s fundraising – not the government.