Likud Minister Dudi Amsalem on Sunday morning filed a petition to the Supreme Court against Attorney-General Gali Baharav-Miara and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant to draft Arabs to the IDF “in the name of equality” in response to the court’s ruling last week to freeze the funds of some yeshivos.
He posted a video, saying: “Good morning Am Yisrael. My friend Attorney Motti Shimon and I are here today to file a petition to the Supreme Court regarding a draft law for Arabs. According to the law today, every Israeli-Arab is supposed to go to the recruitment center and the IDF decides whether to recruit him to the IDF or to national service. But that hasn’t happened since the founding of the state.”
“Nevertheless, the Supreme Court, at a time of war, rushed to fall on the Chareidim and lomdei Torah.”
“Every Arab who reaches the age of 18 and wants to study in a university – the State funds it. They also get scholarships and preferential treatment when they’re looking for a job. And three weeks after they begin university, they’re already protesting with a PLO flag against the State of Israel.”
“But in the view of those who sit in this building [the Supreme Court], its the lomdei Torah who are at fault. I call it the ‘building of hypocrites.’ I want to see now what those hypocrites are going to do about the Arabs. I promise you – they won’t do anything.”
“Why? They have a lot of hatred toward Judaism and Jewish tradition but without it, there’s no Am Yisrael.”
(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)
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7 Responses
Likud Minister Dudi Amsalem is a very astute smart fellow
Nice move!! I like it
Wow
Is he shomer Torah umitzvot? If not he will be soon iy’H!
In fact Arabs, unless they serve in the IDF, are subject to substantial discrimination in employment. And benefits for non-veteran Arabs are also available to Hareidim but for obvious reasons, few want them (e.g. subsidized attendance at secular universities).
A possible solution is one under which Hareidim who state they are opposed to the medinah get the same civil rights and benefits, and liabilities, as goyim or hilonim who are unwilling to serve n the IDF, The government might then consider using a carrot and create special benefits (such as long term subsidizied kollel) targetting Hareidim.
UH there is someone talking sense in Israel. According to wikipedia.org: Amsalem has a long history of attacking non-Orthodox streams of Judaism. According to Yizhar Hess, executive director of the Conservative-Masorti movement in Israel, “There is no one in Likud who is more hostile to the non-Orthodox movements than Amsalem” KOL HAKAVOD!
A compromise is needed for the Yishuv to survive. For those who skip the headlines, Israel in engaged in an “existential” struggle (meaning life or death, the Zionists win or it is erased from history). Agreeing to treat all those opposed to serving in the military the same, and treating all who serve in the army the same, would be a solution all sides could live with. Pro-Zionist Palestinians would be delighted to be rewarded with the full rights of zionist Jews in return for IDF service. Anti-zionist Palestinians and secular Jewish opponents of the medinah will be happy to be exempt. Hareidim who don’t want to serve in the army will be happy to be left alone.
The defense of Israel rests on two pillars — the IDF is only one of the pillars. The other is prayer and belief in Hashem. The prayers of those in yeshivos are important. If the IDF wants to recruit more yeshiva students, it must make more units that would be suitable for their needs and that would enable rather than discourage mitzvah compliance.