As hundreds of thousands of bnei Torah – avreichim, bochurim, and machzikei Torah – gathered in Yerushalayim today for the historic “Atzeres HaMillion,” uniting in peaceful protest against efforts to force yeshivalei into the army, Opposition Leader Yair Lapid unleashed a scathing verbal assault on the participants — calling the massive atzeres “a disgraceful demonstration.”
In comments that immediately sparked outrage, Lapid said: “I want to say to all these young people who went to this disgraceful demonstration in Jerusalem, and are marching in the streets — if you’re able to travel to a protest, you’re able to travel to an induction center; if you’re able to march in the street, you’re able to march in basic training and defend the State of Israel. What has been, won’t be any longer — everyone will enlist, everyone will work, everyone will go to the induction center, everyone will defend the state.”
Lapid’s remarks — delivered amid an unprecedented kiddush Hashem that saw hundreds of thousands of lomdei Torah standing shoulder to shoulder in tefillah — were widely condemned as inflammatory and deeply disrespectful to the Torah world.
YWN NOTES the irony of Lapid lecturing bnei Torah about national service, given that he himself never completed high school and served only as a reporter for the IDF magazine Bamachane during his so-called “mandatory service.”
(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)
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17 Responses
It was?
“unprecedented kiddush Hashem that saw hundreds of thousands of lomdei Torah standing shoulder to shoulder in tefillah.”
If they held up signs that said “LET OTHERS DIE” or “IM MORE IMPORTANT” or “NOT MY PROBLEM” at least i would respect that. And Gd couldnt hear their prayers from yeshiva — this was a show of political power — and let the unwashed masses die. Terrible.
The face of the sitra achra!!
Wonder if it’s even mutar to look at him? (not that anyone should want to!!)
This garbage pail enemy of the Jewish people didn’t even serve himself anything significant
Yasher Koach YWN editorial staff for pointing out yourselves the obvious irony, which many outside of Israel don’t know about.
It’s also ironic for someone like that to say that everyone should be judged by their IDF service, while trying to run against Netanyahu who served with distinction in Sayeret Matkal, as did his bother who was killed in action…
Lapid Junior appears to be suffering from brain atrophy due to cumulative טמטום המח from all the chazer he ate since his childhood in the house of Tommy Lapid ימח שמו.
The Frayeh will have no choice. In the very near future, they will have to give over the entire Government to the Orthodox Yidden. The entire Judicial System, the Army, the Navy and the Airforce. Also the Legislative body. The Chareidim, which are becoming so strong, will run everything.
“If you can die al kiddish Hashem, you can die for the zionist Moloch”
Says the hypocrite draft dodger…
Samksufman you are a clown this rally was organized by Gedolei hachachamim you are an apikores because you stand counter to all Chachmei Hador
Shame on you
is this guy Jewish or christian
Next he’s gonna say tamus nafshi mos yeaharim
aza oisvorf
It is impossible for the heart of Yiddishkeit to remain whole when such a vast number of yeshiva scholars publicly advocate for mass selfishness in the name of religion. This is a matter of basic menschlichkeit.
To imagine oneself too holy to step out of the Beis Medrash and defend our extended Jewish family is a moral failure, not a virtue. It is wicked to grow comfortable dissecting sugyos all day while doing nothing to strengthen or protect the society that sustains you—and worse still to look down on those who do serve, as if they were untouchable peons. Of such a person it might well be said: ער שוקלט זיך מיט אַ ברען אויף די פּלייצעס פֿון עַמְּךָ
Even for a Zionist, that’s really pathetic. In addition to his heresy of refusing to acknowledge that those Torah learners provide infinitely more protection for his “State” than does their army and all their other efforts. And, as YWN pointed, he himself did not do anything to be “magen al haMedinah”. What a sick heretic, even by Zionist “standards”.
SK613:
Have you ever learned Maseches Taanis? There are indeed times that call for a public gathering for prayer, despite that, of course, G-d knows everything and doesn’t even need our prayers from anywhere nor does He need anything else for that matter.
I disagree with Lapid about many things, but YWN’s insistence on including snide comments about his military service is simply childish. Lapid has asthma, which precluded a combat roles in the army – so there is nothing wrong with his serving in a non-combat role as a journalist.
You want to criticize him, go ahead – but do it based on something real. An hominem attacks don’t really help your position.
an Israeli Yid
SamKaufman613:
Completely the opposite – the more people sitting and learning Torah, the safer your ‘unwashed masses’ (yuck what a nasty way of seeing things) are when they go out to fight
You have it exactly backwards (and that is before the complete contempt for Torah your comment demonstrates)
Lapid is garbage with or without serving, the entire War he was constantly trying to use hostage families to gain traction against the the government and the prime minister by using their emotions, as if they weren’t doing all they could. And in the end which prime minister was getting back almost everyone, only Netanyahu not this scumbag
Ari Knobler:
Let’s fix that for you.
It is impossible for the heart of Yiddishkeit to remain whole when such a vast number of Zionists publicly advocate for mass forced-conversion and shmad of all yeshiva students in the name of their religion of Nationalism. This is a matter of basic menschlichkeit.
In other words, the Zionist army is a non-starter for anyone who wants to remain Jewish. Period. It’s very much a lack of “basic menschlichkeit” to forcibly shmad all the Jews there, which is what the Zionist army does and the express purpose for which it was designed. Start there.
an Israeli Zionist.
You consider his asthma a good excuse for him to be a journalist instead of serving in their army, but you don’t consider Jews wanting to remain Jews and to not be exposed to all three of the gimmel chamuros as at least as good a reason. Eileh elohecha.