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| 'We (would rather) die and not be drafted' says the sign (VIN) |
On the one hand it is pretty common knowledge by now that the almost year long war with Hamas has drained just about all of Israel’s human resources toward that cause. Shortages have meant extending IDF tours of duty well beyond the norm. This has not only caused hardships on their families, in many cases it has cost them their businesses or jobs. And perhaps worst of all, it has kept them in the line of fire far too long. And their families worried sick every day over whether their loved ones will be returning whole - or at all!.
All of which would have been helped considerably by tapping into the Charedi world for their human resources. Who until now have been fully exempt from – not only army service but any national service to their country.
In light of the increased burden on the non Charedi world (which includes many observant Jews) forced upon them on that fateful day last October, the Israeli courts have removed from the Charedi world their army exemptions.
Long story short, the Charedi leadership did not take this well and has promised to fight it with everything they’ve got!
Why they are doing this is based on 2 issues. One issue is the false (or at best exaggerated) claim that it will destroy the Torah world as we know it by preventing its diligent study. There are thousands of Religious Zionist Yeshiva students that also serve in the IDF. The other issue no longer exists. The idea of disabusing religious Jews of their belief and and practices has been disproven by a a pile of evidence to the contrary. (An example of which was shown here recently.)
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| Typical Satmar rally in New York (VIN) |
How will this be played out? VIN reports the following:
(The) Eda Charedis, headed by Rabbi Moshe Sternbuch, are calling for a huge demonstration to take place on 19 Elul to protest the “terrible decree” which has befallen the charedi community.
And there is this in another VIN article:
(There is a plan) for the Satmar rally... to vigorously protest the mandatory draft of Yeshiva students in a very public venue.I agree with my friend Rabbi Yair Hoffman who responded with the following:
Invariably, supporters of Hamas will join and the leftist media will have a field day...
…holding an anti-Zionist rally at this juncture, where the very lives of our brethren are at stake, is strengthening the hand of rotzchim – murderers. It is handcuffing the ability of the armed forces that are protecting Klal Yisroel from those who have sworn to continue murdering, raping, and beheading Jewish babies.
This is very well put. However, I must disagree with Yair’s attempt to be evenhanded about this in the following way:
It is unfair to target a draft toward a population that has been prodigiously studying their holy texts in the land of Eretz Yisroel, since before the rise of the state of Israel. It is likewise unfair to exempt entire other ethnicities from a forced draft and yet subject the Yeshiva population to a forced draft.
First - how is it unfair to draft ‘a population that has been prodigiously studying their holy texts in the land of Eretz Yisroel’? There are perhaps thousands of Hesder Yeshiva students who are just as prodigiously studying the same holy texts in the same land of Eretz Yisroel. And yet they understand their obligation. They are not deterred from either their Torah studies or the military obligations. Doing one thing does not negate doing the other. There is a time and place for everything says Ecclesiastes.
Furthermore, we are not talking about drafting every single last Yeshiva Bachur in Israel. Just enough to ease the burden on everyone else. If anything is unfair it is exempting them all from that burden.
As for why should other ethnicities be exempt while Charedim are not... My personal feelings about that are that when one lives in a Jewish state, it becomes a Jewish responsibility to help protect it. There are also practical reason for not drafting other ethnicities. Which in this case are mostly Israeli Arabs. While many of them are loyal and some of them actually serve voluntarily, many others of them quietly sympathize with their Palestinian brethren in the West Bank and Gaza. The IDF does not need a 5th column in its ranks.
All of which brings me back to my original question. Does the upheaval that ensuing Charedi protests may cause end up doing more harm than good? Surely there will be violence.
Will arresting protestors and ‘locking them up’ in overcrowded jails that are insufficient in number help matters? Or make matters worse?
Will there be counter protests by Israelis that have had it with the over 76 year long Charedi refusal to share the burden? What kind of violence will that produce?
Will Charedi protests and counter-protests becomes so violent that blood will be drawn? Will there be an actual civil war between Jew and Jew?
I don’t know if any of this ‘worst case scenario’ will happen. But I don’t think it is all that farfetched considering the intransigence of the Charedi leadership combined with the constituent loyalty to ‘Daas Torah’ on the one hand - and on the other hand, the ‘through the roof’ frustration boiling over on the part of the counter-protestors.
But it is sure worth thinking about before Israel commits to a ‘take no prisoners’ approach to drafting Charedim. Right though they may be about it.
If only both sides had the word ‘compromise’ in their vocabulary.