Hard Right Wing Haredi-Zionist-Orthodox Yeshiva Students To Get Blanket Draft Exemptions

The Knesset committee headed by MK Ayelet Shaked of the Zionist Orthodox HaBayit HaYehudi Party approved an agreement yesterday that will postpone military service for students of “elite Zionist yeshivas” – i.e., those ‘Zionist’ yeshivas that are affiliated with the Haredi Dati Leumi (harda”l) movement and which are haredi in everything but name only. These harda”l yeshiva students – most reportedly affiliated with HaBayit HaYehudi – will be able to postpone their military service to continue studying in yeshiva, in some cases until they turn 26-years-old.

MK Ayelet Shaked

Hard Right Wing Haredi-Zionist-Orthodox Yeshiva Students To Get Blanket Draft Exemptions
Shmarya Rosenberg • FailedMessiah.com

The Knesset committee headed by MK Ayelet Shaked of the Zionist Orthodox HaBayit HaYehudi Party approved an agreement yesterday that will postpone military service for students of “elite Zionist yeshivas” – i.e., those ‘Zionist’ yeshivas that are affiliated with the Haredi Dati Leumi (harda”l) movement and which are haredi in everything but name only. These harda”l yeshiva students – most reportedly affiliated with HaBayit HaYehudi – will be able to postpone their military service to continue studying in yeshiva, in some cases until they turn 26-years-old, Ha’aretz reported.

The move reportedly prompted outrage from haredim, who have enjoyed similar blanket exemptions for their yeshiva students for six decades with one major difference – haredi yeshiva students remained exempt as long as they remained full time yeshiva students. Most chose to do this well past middle age, avoiding military service altogether.

The haredi opposition centered largely around the fact that the Zionist Orthodox students to be granted this exemption are identified by what high schools they attended.

“What makes the Zionist yeshivas different from other yeshivas? I say the characteristics of these yeshivas are that most of the students don’t have televisions at home, that their wives keep their heads covered. Does the fact that their students were educated in government-religious schools make a difference? Can that definition even hold up in the Supreme Court?,” MK Meir Porush of the Ashkenazi haredi United Torah Judaism reportedly said.

The draft of haredi yeshiva students was also on Tuesday’s agenda.

“The shorter period of army service [for all men], which will go into effect in July 2015, will affect a number of soldiers for the first time in March 2018. By then, the number of haredim who are drafted is expected to increase significantly, in accordance with the equal civil tights and obligations laws,” Shaked and fellow committee member MK Ofer Shelah wrote, meaning that the draft of haredim is what is allowing them to cut the length of service for all male soldiers by four months and what is allowing the committee to refuse to lengthen female soldiers’ service – something the IDF, which is opposed to shortening mens’ service and opposed to not lengthening women’s service – is very upset with. It argues that men’s military service cannot be shortened unless the women’s service is lengthened.

Women presently serve 24 months. Men presently serve 36 months. If the new draft bill passes, however, their term of service will be reduced to 32 months.

Ha’aretz also reported that the Shaked committee previously decided not to accept a plan that would have allowed 18- to 24-year-old men to postpone their military service to study as Chabad emissaries abroad for one or two years (i.e., the traditional year or two of “shlichus” of many Chabad yeshiva students, which does not need to be done in a foreign country or even in a different city; these students study in a Chabad yeshiva full time and do minimal part time work to help the local Chabad rabbi).

Comments

[rebitzman - $101 to read my posts]

I have mixed feelings.

On one hand, deferring enlistment until someone finished their studies is not exactly a new concept or one unique to Israel (we all have friends who are lawyers or PHd's because of the Vietnam War), but I do have an issue with one group receiving the deferrment - and another not.

[D]

she is smokin hot!!

[D]

after looking her up i should add...in this photo.
shes smokin hot in this photo.

[!]

For once Porush has said something reasonable even intelligent.

What makes the Zionist yeshivas different from other yeshivas? ......................Can that definition even hold up in the Supreme Court?,” MK Meir Porush of the Ashkenazi haredi United Torah Judaism reportedly said.

The part about the Supreme Court though is dubious...why would he care what they would hold? He and his crown don't hold of the Court, its rulings, its legitimacy and even moreso anyone's right to go there.

[rocky]

Rebitzman: The US was really never under threat of attack by the Viet Namese 50 years ago, even if some members of the political class were concerned about the Domino Theory. The Gulf of Tonkin incident was a fraud on the American public. South Viet Nam evenutally fell to the Communists anyway and these days, Viet Nam sells Rockport shoes into the US market.

Israel is a different case. It is surrounded by enemy states and war is ALWAYS a possibilty. During WWII, many Americans did their military service first and then completed their college studies under the GI Bill. I think that model is more appropriate in Israel's case, but its politicians are free to play whatever political games they wish. Too bad its leaders followed the unsuccessful Weimar model of proportional representation in 1948. The country has too many political parties for its own good.

[shari]

Rebitzman: The student deferment as an "out" for Vietnam era men, essentially ended with the draft lottery, first instituted in December of 1969. Inductions from 1970 on were based on the birthdates pulled in the lottery, rather than on college status.

An older cousin of mine, now a dean at Dartmouth College, intended to write his Phd thesis in prison. He and another man mailed back their draft cards (instead of the more common burning them). Rather than try, sentence and imprison them, the draft board created a new category for them and they were exempted from service. When this was going on, two FBI agents visited his father at his job teaching high school and pulled him out of class to interview him. They asked him if he knew what his son was doing. His response, "Yes, and I'm damn proud of him." My family was against the Vietnam War long before most.

By the time my classmates and I were 19, the draft lottery had been in existence for 3 years and college didn't help exempt you.

[Yosef ben Matitya]

ooy ooy ooy
frum? how could it be? with her collar bone exposed like this?

[Franklin Clinton]

She is not Orthodox, she used to work with Bennett in Netanyahu’s office, when Bennett left (or forced out by Sarah, the Middle East most powerful woman) she left with him and helped him to establish the Bayit Yehudi party

[(The other) Eli]

Hopefully Shmarya uses this pic for Habayit haYehudi articles. Really cute girl

[tucsonjew]

Why are all Orthodox women so hot?