Members of Israel’s coalition are drafting legislation that would raise the exemption age to 35 or even 40, Yisrael Hayom reported on Tuesday.
According to the report, senior security officials recommended raising the exemption age. Currently, the exemption age is 26; after that age, bochurim or avreichim can join the workforce without serving in the IDF.
If the report is true, the move would be the opposite of the trend in recent years to lower the exemption age as much as possible in order to encourage Chareidim to join the workforce and not remain in yeshivah just to avoid being drafted. There have even been various proposals over the years to lower the exemption age to 21-23.
However, a new Chareidi draft law is required following the Supreme Court’s decision to force the government to rationalize why they can’t draft Chareidim. Security officials made the recommendation to raise the exemption age with the goal of forcing those who cannot or do not wish to learn full-time for so many years to be drafted in order to enter the workforce afterward.
According to the report, the Chareidi MKs have expressed initial willingness to adopt the move as it means that those who wish to learn full-time will be able to do so for many years and those who do not or cannot learn full-time will enlist or volunteer, as the Gedolim recently agreed to in an unprecedented decision.
(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)
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9 Responses
I think we could all agree that worse than drafting yeshiva bachurim is drafting (non-religious) women. Why don’t we offer to end the draft of all women in exchange for a limited draft of yeshiva bachurim to fill in the gap
Torah study must be categorized as National Service.
Everyone must shoulder this burden. The rabonem need to get involved seriously and find a compromise that keeps Torah values without letting the army get so weak leading to another churben.
we have no right to serve in the IDF as they are ONLY interested in their campaign to make us secular Zionists and impose kol isha and many issurim on us.
The wicked Zionists continue to impoverish the Jews in an effort to force them to convert from Judaism to idolatrous Zionism.
“According to the report, the Chareidi MKs have expressed initial willingness to adopt the move as it means that…those who do not or cannot learn full-time will enlist or volunteer, as the Gedolim recently agreed to in an unprecedented decision.”
There is zero chance that this actually happened (despite the linked story). Every gadol in history forbade joining the IDF.
@yaarYM: The army is NOT getting weaker because of the luck of Bnei torah serving – the army is weak because they don’t believe in אם ה’ לא ישמור עיר שוא שקד שומר but instead believe in כחי ועוצם ידי!
There is also a lot of infighting and egoism within the security establishment.
It wasn’t the missing Bochrim and Avreichim that allowed the Simchas Torah massacre to happen.
It wasn’t the missing Bochrim and Avreichim that protected the shomrei shabbos moshavim and Yeshivos on Simchas Torah!
Every gadol in history forbade joining the IDF.
What a lie. No gadol ever forbade it, and anyone who did forbid it was NOT A GADOL. You are, as you admit, a katan. Well, so is your rebbe or whoever taught you such wickedness. Joining the IDF is a mitzvah; but talmud torah keneged kulam. So long as there are enough people to do this mitzvah, those whose tafkid is full-time learning, and I do mean full time, should not neglect their Torah to do it. If there ever comes a time when there are literally not enough people to do it, then, like a mes mitzvah, talmidei chachomim will have to volunteer.
It’s such a shame that anti-IDFers need to resort to lies to support their position. There is no shmad in Israel! The Medina is not trying to secularlize it’s residents. The Medina invests more money into Yeshivos then any other state. The state wants the Charedim for two reasons only:
1) The IDF needs more soldiers. It’s a fact. With the current lack of manpower, miluim requirement are being extended, age requirement are being expended, boys are being pulled out of mechinot, businesses are suffering because soldiers are required to stay in the battle longer.
2) Sharing the burden is a value. The risks and sacrifices of war should not be borne by only part of the population. We all need to join together to face our enemy… we R”L mourn and iyH will celebrate victory together.
IF you dispute those value, then just say so. Stop pretending there is shmad to validate why secular and Religious Zionist families have to risk their sons and daughters to war while Charedim watch them fight our battles from the sidelines.