As an increasing number of cabinet ministers are pushing for legislation to complicate the process of receiving an exemption from military service, Transportation Minister (Likud) Yisrael Katz feels that anyone being discharged with a medical profile of 21, attesting to one’s mental incapacity, should also be barred forever from obtaining a drivers license, a move he feels may prompt those seeking to use any means to avoid service from going the “crazy” route.
Katz also feels those receiving a legitimate deferment for reasons including religion and conscientious objector should be compelled to serve in a national service framework. He feels this must include women, chareidim and Arabs. One suggestion for national service he promotes is taking part in the struggle to reduce road fatalities and accidents.
(Yechiel Spira – YWN Israel)
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One Response
If there is a basis under halacha to be a “conscientious objector” it means you are saying that the government lacks legitamacy. In most countries, saying the current government is illigitimate (i.e., are a bunch of usurpers) is considered treason, which basically, it is. Far better to be “crazy” than a traitor. The fact that many if not most orthodox Jews consider the current Israeli regime to be illigitimate only complicates the matter. By way of contrast, in the United States, the view that the government is illigitimate is limited to a few nut cases, plus some American Indians.
Restricting drivers licenses on a political basis will just increase the number of unlicensed drivers, and further the process by which more and more Israelis regard the government as a bunch of usurpers whose authority extends no further than they are able to force obedience, leading to an Israeli government that is more dysfunctional than it is already.