Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu strongly condemned the slogan “We will die and not enlist” during a podcast interview set to air Wednesday, calling it “a terrible statement” that “deserves every condemnation.”
“I agree with you,” Netanyahu said. “It is a terrible statement that I have condemned, and it deserves every condemnation. It is simply unacceptable. Certainly when it comes to people who are not learning and are pretending to be Torah scholars — that must be dealt with decisively.”
Asked whether he sets firm limits with Chareidi party leaders Aryeh Deri and Moshe Gafni, Netanyahu replied jokingly, “I take a 20-kilogram club and say, ‘This is unacceptable. It simply cannot happen.'”
Netanyahu also said he believes attitudes within the Chareidi community have begun to shift since the October 7 war, pointing to what he described as a growing number of Chareidim joining the IDF. He added that many Shas voters already serve in the military and said they are not represented by the extremist slogan.
Addressing the government’s recent decision to temporarily halt arrests of draft evaders, Netanyahu stressed that the move is only a temporary directive intended to provide time to pass what he described as a responsible draft law aimed at uniting the nation.
Meanwhile, reports in the Israeli media claimed the Prime Minister’s Office asked that a portion of the interview discussing Netanyahu’s relationship with his daughter Noa, who is Chareidi and lives in Jerusalem’s Meah Shearim neighborhood, be removed before the podcast airs. According to the reports, the request came after the interview was recorded.
The Prime Minister’s Office denied the report, saying simply: “The report is not true.”
(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)
9 Responses
Well when the government has an agreement with a group of people for 80 years and a Rogue group of corrupt judicial officials decide to terminate the agreement don’t expect everyone to surrender smiling. Maybe the prime minister should go back to fighting that evil court and take his job back from them
Bibi’s own daughter and son-in-law are Kanoyim who don’t vote, and their kids will serve in the IDF like Bibi will learn in the Mir.
It doesn’t really matter what Bibi thinks of the slogan, it matters what the people saying it think of it. You can’t take 13% of the population of Israel, which is close to 20% of the Jewish population, and force them to do anything.
Arresting yeshiva bachurim is a terrible practice, sanctioning learners while funding Arabs is a disgrace to humanity. Take care of the corrupt bagatz and save the country
Perhaps the zionists are now realizing why they should have avoided stabbing the pro-zionist hareidim (those who vote in Israel elections, serve in the Knesset, and sometimes serve in the army) in the back. Only the zionist stupidity could have made groups such as Satmar and Neturei Karta into “players” in the political world, something that has not been the case since the zionists murdered Jacob Israel De Haan over a century ago.
The pork eating Netanyahu is in no position to lecture the Torah community.
> Well when the government has an agreement with a group of people for 80 years
Israeli government is not a king. New government can make new laws. Ben Gurion exempted a small group of learners at the time when yeshivos ensured that these were real learners. Non-learners were not exempt.
YYA> You can’t take 13% of the population of Israel, which is close to 20% of the Jewish population, and force them to do anything.
You can’t have 20% of Jewish population ignore what the country needs are, while relying on their support and protection.
Once again you have no idea how government works, it doesn’t matter who he originally made the law for, the law was in effect until a rogue attorney general decided to cancel it without government permission or a new law to put in its place. That’s not how this is done. Overstepping Authority. That’s dictatorship and punishing the Torah community to cause political chaos