Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s office issued a dramatic announcement on Wednesday afternoon, saying that Netanyahu will advance the Chareidi draft law approved by then-Defense Minister Benny Gantz during the Lapid-Bennett government.
The background behind the announcement is the demands of the Supreme Court and Attorney-General Gali Baharav-Miara to draft yeshivah bochurim and the insistence of Defense Minister Yoav Gallant that he will only support a law approved by Minister Gantz.
Gantz and Gallant want to advance a draconian draft law, with a goal of recruiting at least 50% of yeshivah bochurim, a step that the Chareidi MKs will obviously not approve. The Chareidi MKs agreed to a target goal of 25% but Gallant refused the compromise.
A new law formulated by the IDF, Defense Ministry, and Chareidi MKs was supposed to be brought for a vote at today’s cabinet meeting but due to the intransigence of Gantz and Gallant, the proposal wasn’t placed on the agenda.
Instead, Netanyahu made a surprise move, with his office issuing an official statement saying: “In order to bridge the differences and bring about a broad consensus, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu decided to advance the conscription law that passed its first reading in the previous Knesset.”
The statement added, with the aim of reminding Gantz that he was the one who approved the law. “The law was prepared by the security establishment after thorough efforts and was submitted by then-Defense Minister Benny Gantz. The bill will be brought for a vote on Thursday to the Knesset’s Ministerial Committee for Legislation and Netanyahu calls on all parties that supported the bill in the previous Knesset to join the proposal.”
Netanyahu is trying to avoid the interference of Gantz and the Attorney-General, who also approved the bill.
As expected, Gantz slammed Netanyahu, accusing him of engaging in “political tricks.”
“The temporary bridging law that was submitted and which you want to pass now – was not satisfactory then, and is not relevant today after October 7th,” Gantz said. “The time for talk is over. It’s time for action. We expect all the heads of the Chareidi parties, the Rabbanim and the leaders of the generation to voice their support for army service for the Chareidi sector.”
The law approved by Gantz sets target numbers for Chareidi recruitment that increase annually and establishes financial consequences for yeshivos if the target numbers aren’t reached. The law also lowers the exemption age to 21 and allows a shortened army service as well as occupational training and or national-civilian service in place of military service.
(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)
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9 Responses
Yet the over one million Palestinian Arabs don’t have to do even so much as mopping a floor in their own neighborhoods as National Service. The generals already said they are not needed. Persecutory and bad for security.
Israel won’t win the war if it does this
The Zionist government will unfortunately get its way because the hareidi gedolim aren’t all united as we see haredi soldiers entering the military without express permission.
If the government would see a non budging unity, they would let go – they might try arrest but the prisons would be “quite” full!
Also, the money issues would “unfortunately” break the resolve of the unity between gedolim – a concept that wasn’t heard of in pre war Poland nor Lithuania. Mesiras nefesh was always called for.
The whole place is based on “political tricks.” So whats he complaining about ???
Is there a connection between this announcement and the terrible accident in Gaza with at least 15 soldiers hurt including some fatalities R”L?!
“The Chareidi MKs agreed to a target goal of 25% ” don’t think that bad ones going to army and the good aren’t cause they seek a place of secularism as life and it is not possible to stay a of healthy Torah belief in that place
Rav Shach, ztl, once said that there will come a time when they will try to draft all the bochurim, and at that time the only eitza will be to send all the bochurim out of the country. It might be time to start preparing for this. I saw this in an interview with Rabbi Yitzchak Peretz, shlita, Chief Rabbi of Raanana, who was at one time very close to Rav Shach and who at Rav Shach’s instructions founded the Shas party, which he later left and is now affiliated with UTJ. May Hashem guide His people in the correct way to serve Him.
The more the Zionists assault the Torah and its learners and those who observe the Torah, the sooner they bring the destruction of Zionism and all its organs.
This is why they so badly needed judicial reform in EY!!!