If you draft us, we will destroy the country. That is the essence of what a senior haredi spokesman wrote in yesterday’s edition of the Shas Party’s daily newspaper Yom Leyom.
The Sefardi haredi Shas political party's spiritual leader, Rabbi Ovadia Yosef
Haredi Spokesman Threatens “Chaos,” Violence, Sedition And A Mass Haredi Exodus From Israel If Haredi Yeshiva Students Are Drafted
Shmarya Rosenberg • FailedMessiah.com
If you draft us, we will destroy the country.
That is the essence of what a senior haredi spokesman wrote in yesterday’s edition of the Shas Party’s daily newspaper Yom Leyom, Ynet reported.
The paper’s editor, Rabbi Moshe Shafir wrote a signed editorial in which he threatened that haredim would file charges against Israel in the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague if a haredi draft was instituted, warning that haredim would plunge Israel into “chaos” and “anarchy.”
He also threatened that haredim would disrupt arms sales to Israel. Referring to the sale of German submarines to Israel, Shafrir wrote that “Holocaust-type photos of dozens of children wearing yellow badges may even leave the last German submarine in the shipyard.”
Shafir also threatened non-haredi Israelis with mass haredi demonstrations, riots, civil disobedience, a “tax revolt,” and strikes that will "make spaghetti of your country" if haredi yeshiva students are drafted.
“Not one haredi will enlist [i.e., agree to be drafted and serve in the Israel Defense Forces] without the authorization of the rabbis [who now forbid it]. We'll devote our lives to the Torah at any price," Shafir wrote.
"We will also make it difficult to realize your melting pot ideal - the prisons are already filled with Eritreans," Shafir also wrote.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is "lacking [in] leadership,” Shafir wrote. And then he explained the consequences of that to Israelis.
"When there is no [leader], there is no government, and when there is no government, there is civil war. And in war there are casualties on both sides."
But Shafir also made a threat that was probably music to the ears of the vast majority of Israelis – haredim would leave Israel if a haredi draft is instituted, and that will “gradually turn you [non-haredi Israelis] into a minority in the face of an Arab majority.”