Times of Israel Jewish Home party officials late Thursday hailed a government committee’s recommendations for a revolutionary universal conscription bill that would severely limit the number of ultra-Orthodox Israelis exempt from the draft.
Sources within the national religious party, headed by Naftali Bennett, called the Peri Committee’s plan a “historic compromise,” and credited Bennett’s alliance with Yesh Atid chief Yair Lapid.
Jewish Home party officials late Thursday hailed a government committee’s recommendations for a revolutionary universal conscription bill that would severely limit the number of ultra-Orthodox Israelis exempt from the draft.
Sources within the national religious party, headed by Naftali Bennett, called the Peri Committee’s plan a “historic compromise,” and credited Bennett’s alliance with Yesh Atid chief Yair Lapid.
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/168260#.UZ8YYlI9WKI
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"Hareidi MKs Vow to Fight Enlistment Plan
"Draconian sanctions are ineffective and have no chance," says MK Moses.
By Gil Ronen
5/23/2013
Hareidi Knesset Members are up in arms over the recommendations for enlistment of young hareidi men to the military, which are to be approved by the government in its next session.
"The bill is divorced from reality and will not be implemented, of course," predicted MK Yaakov Litzman (United Torah Judaism). "Anyone who speaks about limiting Torah learners, setting a goal for top yeshiva students and quotas, exhibits ignorance in this ever so sensitive and complicated matter, as well as a patronizing and supercilious attitude."
"We have guarded Torah students throughout the generations, and today, too, there will not be a situation in which a person who shes to study Torah in Israel finds himself in jail or paying fines," he vowed. "The hareidi representatives did not take part in the Perry Committee deliberations, because of the clear aim of the Lapid-Bennett government under Netanyahu, is to harm Torah students, to place limitations on a huge and central sector of Torah observers, in the guise of caring for equality in sharing the burden of military service."
MK Menachem Moses (UTJ) also declared that "There will not be a situation in which a Torah student finds himself in jail or threatened in one way or another. We will not be cowed with forced legislation and draconian sanctions. This is a bill that was born of complete ignorance and misunderstanding of the hareidi sector, and a hatred of religion, and its entire aim is the uprooting of the values of Judaism and religion. We are loyal to the instructions of the Great Sages of Israel and they will tell us how to act."
MK Meir Porush (UTJ) said that instead of creating ministerial committtees to discuss hareidi enlistment, he would have expected ministers to discuss why secular education leads youths "to murder, steal and more... deeds that a hareidi Jew is ashamed to even speak about."
"Let whoever has a part in this wretched law, which is an attempt to crush the Torah world, know that the future of our existence here in the Land is in danger," he said. "I call on the Bayit Yehudi rabbis - it is not too late, do not lend your hands to this harsh blow to the Torah world and to the holy yeshivas that are the soul of the Jewish nation."
The Perry Committee on equal IDF service for all on Thursday filed its recommendations with the government. The law proposed by the committee would allow for up to only 1,800 top yeshiva students to remain fully exempt from service for as long as they were in yeshiva. Others would be drafted at age 18, but can defer service for 3 years. The committee recommended that the changes go into effect 3 years from now.
Individuals who do not report for the draft will be criminally prosecuted. Yeshivas that encourage their students not to register for the draft will be punished by losing their state funding, while yeshivas with a high percentage of draftees will be rewarded."
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4383428,00.html
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"Haredi MK: IDF draft reform 'detached from reality'
United Torah Judaism's Litzman says Peri Committee proposal to draft most haredim at age 21 part of 'Lapid-Bennett government campaign to hurt Torah students.' MK Porush: Bill meant to 'crush Torah world'
Moran Azulay
05.23.13
"The enlistment reform bill is detached from reality and will not be implemented," said Knesset Member Yakov Litzman (United Torah Judaism) in response to a proposal submitted Thursday by a ministerial committee in charge of drafting legislation to bring about comprehensive haredi recruitment to the IDF and national service program.
In regards to the recent protests in the haredi sector against the recruitment plan, Litzman said: "Whoever talks about limiting those who study the Torah and setting quotas for a number of 'prodigies' is being ignorant about this sensitive and delicate issue, as well as condescending and patronizing."
The committee, headed by Minister Yaakov Peri of Yair Lapid's Yesh Atid party, suggested drafting some 65% of haredim at the age of 21 following a three-year transition period. The proposal calls, among other things for economic sanctions against yeshivas whose students evade IDF service.
According to Litzman, there was no haredi representation in the Peri Committee due to an ongoing trend in the Lapid-Bennett government to hurt Torah students: "They want to limit the footsteps of a great and central public of observant Jews and disguise it with concern for equal burden. In every generation we have guarded Torah scholars, and also today there will not be a situation in which a person who wants to study Torah in Israel will find himself jailed or fined."
Member of Knesset Meir Porush (United Torah Judaism) called the proposal a "miserable bill designed to crush the world of Torah."
Porush added: "The future of our existence is in danger. There should be Knesset committees to reform the secular education, which creates criminals and murderers, rather than recruiting yeshiva scholars for army service."
The proposed outline is also taking heat from the other side of the political spectrum. The Forum for the Promotion of Equal Share in the Burden claimed that the proposal marks a victory of the ultra-Orthodox over the Yesh Atid declarations prior to the elections: "(Finance Minister) Yair Lapid is about to (miss a historic opportunity). Instead of recruiting haredim immediately, as mandated by the High Court of Justice, we are looking at an abstract service in three years, when another government will be in office and the law will become null and void."
The forum for equality further added: "What reason is there to postpone implementation by three years, apart from the fear of dealing with the real issue head on? If the Lapid proposal passes, than the unequal share of the burden will increase immediately, since tens of thousands of haredim who have not contributed a thing to the country will go out to the workforce, and dramatically hurt those who do serve the country. If these are indeed the Peri Committee conclusions, then we will go back to the streets and remind Lapid of what he himself said in our protests only a year ago." "
Let the "They hate us! They're like Nazis" shouting begin!
ReplyDeleteNote to Garnel---"they" are not like Nazis but their obsession is close to hate, and the resulting measures are calculated to damage the chareidi rank-and-file to the max, far beyond what a proper national defense requires.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/168336#.UaMEz1I9WKI
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"Yaalon: No to Sanctions on Hareidim
Defense Minister says drafting hareidim should be carried out gradually.
By Gil Ronen
5/26/2013
Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon said Sunday that drafting hareidim into the military should be carried out gradually, and that criminal charges and other harsh sanctions against those who do not enlist are a bad idea.
"It will not lead anywhere,” he said, regarding sanctions. “The solution should come about gradually. The idea is to bring about the gradual enlistment of more and more hareidim and minorities.”
"The right way is to encourage enlistment, not through hatred. We do not carry out change with a blow of a sword, but through a process. That is the outline that is being drawn up, and which I hope will be accepted – one in which both hareidim and minorities will be enlisted.
Yaalon is expected to vote in favor of the recommendations of the Perry Committee for enlistment of hareidim."
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/168360
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"Yesh Atid Threatens to Bolt Coalition
Marathon ministerial discussion breaks up in disagreement over criminal sanctions against hareidim who do not enlist.
By Gil Ronen
5/27/2013
Yesh Atid, Likud's largest coalition partner, is threatening to leave the coalition because of the dispute over enlistment of hareidim into the IDF.
The government was to approve legislation regulating the issue this week, following months of work by a ministerial committee headed by Minister Yaakov Perry of Yesh Atid. However, the committee's marathon session Sunday night broke up in discord.
Yesh Atid wants the bill to stipulate that, following a transition period, hareidi men who avoid enlistment will face criminal charges. Likud and Yisrael Beytenu oppose this.
"The behavior of the Likud-Beytenu ministers in the Committee for Equality in Enlistment is a clear breach of the coalition agreement and creates a danger that we will miss the historic opportunity to bring about equality in the military and economic burden,” Yesh Atid said in a press statement.
"Making military service compulsory for the entire population is a necessary step for the creation of equality ion Israeli society, and not doing so endangers the continued existence of the coalition,” it said.
Likud, on the other hand, said that slapping criminal liability on hareidim who do not enlist contradicts the coalition agreement, which specified that financial sanctions would be preferred over criminal ones."
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/168334#.UaMGz1I9WKI
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"R. Yosef: G-d Will 'Thwart' Hareidi Draft Plan
Shas spiritual advisor and former Chief Rabbi Ovadia Yosef condemned the government for preparing to draft hareidi students
By David Lev
5/26/2013
In his weekly Saturday night class, Shas spiritual mentor and former Chief Rabbi Ovadia Yosef condemned the government for preparing to draft hareidi yeshiva students. “May G-d thwart the plans of those who are considering doing evil and to keep Yeshiva students from their studies. They make plans but those plans will be denied them, they make resolutions but these will not come to pass, because G-d is with us,” Rabbi Yosef quoted from a Biblical passage.
The government inter-ministerial committee on equitable IDF service, led by MK Ya'akov Perry, is set to deliver its findings to the government after a final vote to approve them later Sunday. Among those findings is a recommendation to draft nearly all hareidi yeshiva students, except for 1,800 of the most outstanding students.
Hareidi leaders have been vociferously opposed to the plan, which they say will destroy an entire culture of Torah learning and prevent the development of scholars in the future.
Rabbi Yosef has mentioned the Perry committee recommendations in several speeches in recent weeks. “They will not succeed in their plans” to establish a massive draft of yeshiva students, he said. “G-d will pay them justly for what they are trying to do.” "