Haredi Pols Say Draft Law Is Good For Haredim, Plan Million Man Anti-Draft Protest Anyway
Haredim are planning a "Million Man" anti-draft protest on Sunday, March 9 – even though several senior haredi politicians and a spokesman for the most senior haredi rabbi all admit the proposed draft law is good for haredim. "If there is too much praise [for law by haredim, because it exempts them from most of what they should be obligated for], someone will want to change [the law] before it reaches the Knesset plenum [for its final votes]," MK Rabbi Moshe Gafni of the Ashkenazi haredi United Torah Judaism Party said in explaining why haredi leaders were lashing out against the government.
MK Rabbi Moshe Gafni
Israel HaYom reports:
…Plans for the '[haredi "Million Man" anti-draft] protest were moving forward even though haredim say the draft law actually benefits them. Benny Rabinowitz, official spokesman of prominent Ashkenazi authority Rabbi Aharon Leib Shteinman, even admitted in an interview at the Israel Hayom Tel Aviv studio that the new legislation was good for the ultra-Orthodox. On Sunday evening, the haredi website Kikar Hashabat posted positive comments made by haredi MKs.
"If there is too much praise, someone will want to change [the law] before it reaches the Knesset plenum," the site quoted MK Moshe Gafni (United Torah Judaism) as saying.…
It will be as successful and have as much impact as that other "million man march" in D.C.
Posted by: Reese | February 25, 2014 at 11:21 AM
Where are these million people supposed to come from? Women and little children won't be able to attend. That cuts out 75% of the Haredi population.
So, even if every single eligible turns out to protest, you are at best going to have 200,000. A wild stretch, given that many Haredim won't turn up.
Posted by: Insights316 | February 25, 2014 at 12:24 PM
Million man? There is not a single man among them.
Posted by: David | February 25, 2014 at 12:29 PM
Will Louis Farrakhan be there? He will in spirit, at least.
Posted by: Yochanan Lavie | February 25, 2014 at 12:31 PM
Good opportunity to round them all up and ship them to the Negev for resettlement.
Posted by: S M L | February 25, 2014 at 12:44 PM
I would have thought that something by this name would be something that Shmarya would feel an affinity for!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Million_Man_March
How dare you judge men by the color of their garb!
Posted by: Context | February 25, 2014 at 02:52 PM
A million nothings are still nothing.
Posted by: jancsibacsi | February 25, 2014 at 05:10 PM
Does anyone who attends qualify as "not attending yeshiva" and therefore is eligible for the draft? How can they stop learning for a day and thereby stop the protection that it provides for the REAL Jews of the Holy Land, (not G-d forbid the FAKE Jews of the medina). This is indeed very wreckless.
Posted by: R Nash | February 26, 2014 at 09:29 AM