Guest post by RaP
Why is it taking so long for all the political parties in Israel to agree to come together and form a government for the good of the people?
Many people are puzzled by this great question, that after four weeks of trying and dealing with such intelligent party leaders, yet PM Netanyahu cannot form a coalition government. He has just received a two-week extension after four weeks of trying.
One would think that with the threat of Iran going more nuclear by the day; Syria in civil war spasms; Hamas and Hezbollah primed like vipers to strike Israel with rockets; Egypt dominated by the new Muslim Brotherhood-affiliated regime; hostile Arabs; rebellious Palestinians; 300,000+ gentiles from the former USSR who have no Jewish identity; porous borders to patrol; poverty; housing shortages; educational challenges in a high tech world; economic threats; worries about what America and Europe could do to harm Israel; and much more, that the Israeli political leadership would come together quickly and face the threats seriously and efficiently.
But no, that is not what they are doing. Firstly there are two new actors on the political stage who have never held any office before with large parties behind them: TV showman Yair Lapid of Yesh Atid (19 seats) and businessman Naftali Bennett of Bayit Yehudi (12 seats), who are acting according to their own agenda of essentially creating a situation that could destroy Netanyahu once and for all, which is precisely their goal.
Secondly, Lapid and Bennett, using the best propaganda techniques of yore, are portraying the Charedim (with 18 seats) as "parasites" who are not doing their share. The "solution" according to them is to throw all young Charedim into the army! Sergeants and corporals and drill masters will then "fix" the Charedim and make them into "good soldiers" who will serve the state and not the yeshivas and bais yaakovs.
Who made up such stuff?
Obviously it's people who know nothing about Jewish history, that for 2,000 years it was precisely "Yavneh and its Sages" that saved the Jewish people and overcame all wars and armies. What Israel needs is more of "Yavneh and its Sages" and not of the army and its sergeants!
From it earliest days, the Likud (31 seats) was put into power by the balance of power votes of the Charedi parties. Netanyahu always crafted coalitions with Charedi parties. But the alliance of Lapid and Bennett is determined to stop that and hence destroy Netanyahu's ability to hook up with his natural allies and function politically. But more than that, Lapid and Bennett want to neuter Netanyahu completely. Lapid has never held office, a year ago no one took him seriously as a politician, but he now openly declared he "will be" prime minister of Israel in "eighteen months"! He wants Netanyahu's job without ever run anything but his TV studio. Bennett worked for Netanyahu, then became a CEO of a high tech company that he sold for $150 million so he figures he can be "CEO of Israel" and he is now fighting to turn the tables on his old boss. There is no love lost between any of them, so how can there be a "cabinet" between them?
The one refrain that is heard over and over again from Lapid and Bennett is that they want to conscript the Charedim, as if that is the greatest goal any human can aspire to. Not even the Labor party (18 seats) wants to conscript Charedim!
If Lapid and Bennett have done one thing it is to unite the Charedim like never before. For the first time the two leadership Moetzes of both the Degel HaTorah and Agudas Yisroel met together. Chasidim and Litvaks are now 100% united to fight their common adversaries. Add to this that the Sefardim under Shas are as tightly united with Yahadut HaTorah (UTJ) as the UTJ is internally united within itself, all due thanks to the outside threats from Lapid and Bennett. Thank you Yair and Naftali for accomplishing achdus in the Olam haTorah! Yidden are praying harder to HKB"H because of you!
Most seriously, the threats to drag Charedi boys into the army has become an obsession that is going nowhere. It is becoming a frenzy that is heating up the "lynch mob" mentality among the Chilonim. Are they going to put 50,000 bochurim in jails? If so, why not put 500,000 Mamas and Tatas and brothers and sisters of the Charedim into "detention camps" for harboring "deserters" just like the British put potential olim in such camps in Cyprus for having the chutzpa to want to come to Israel?
Imagine a bochur is 18 or 19 and he is learning quietly like a masmid, not bothering anyone, just shtaiging in Torah and Yiras Shomayim and suddenly he is informed that if he, or she because they want girls to serve to, does not show up to "register" for the army he/she is subject to "arrest" and "imprisonment" thereby becoming "criminals"! This is truly the "mida of Sedom" whereby innocent people are deemed "guilty" while genuine pimps, perverts, prostitutes and perps roam the streets of Israel freely because they have previously "served" in the army! How crazy is that!
The last time Jews faced a massive threat of conscription like this was under the Czars of Russia that for hundreds of years subjected Jews and other citizens to long army service that eventually contributed to a massive overthrow and revolution, and we know how that ended for the Czars and their nobles and their army.
One thing about Netanyahu, like him or not, all the years, he has always come out creating an alliance with the Charedi parties and even though he growls at Charedim from time to time, he has never outright bitten or smitten them outright. Not so the new forces of Lapid and his so-called Yesh Atid ("Ein Atid" would be more apt) and Bennett and his so-called Bayit Yehudi (Rav Ovadia Yosef called it a "Bayit Shel Goyim") who want to destroy Netanyahu, who scheme to thereby stop Netanyahu's ability to ally himself with the Charedim and thereby destroy his main zechusim, and in their delusional fantasy CH"V destroy the world of Torah learning.
Even among the Likud, there are those, like former General Moshe Yaalon who warns that there must not be sudden harsh acts to conscript Charedim. If anything, one must allow for a "evolutionary" process and try to accommodate the needs of Charedim to make it comfortable for VOLUNTEERS to join. In any case, no normal person wants forced conscripts to "defend" anything! In fact, there are many in Israel who assert that Israel is at the point where it could do away with the draft for everyone and switch to an all-volunteer professional army, with citizens receiving some basic self-defense training. But this you never hear about, unless you read the news very closely.
Great Rachamei Shamayim is needed, it is an Eis Tzara LiYisrael !!