He sold out to haredim. That’s the claim being made tonight by tens of thousands of indignant Israelis after their Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu again rejected the findings of the commission he formed to deal with the issue of drafting haredim into the Israel Defense Forces and instead adopted recommendations made by a political crony and that appear to be unconstitutional.
Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
Netanyahu Sells Out To Haredim, Moves To Adopt Another Unconstitutional Law On Haredi Draft
Shmarya Rosenberg • FailedMessiah.com
He sold out to haredim.
That’s the claim being made tonight by tens of thousands of indignant Israelis after their Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu again rejected the findings of the commission he formed to deal with the issue of drafting haredim into the Israel Defense Forces and instead adopted recommendations made by a political crony and that appear to be unconstitutional.
Until now, haredim have been largely exempt from the draft due to the wording of the Tal Law, which governed haredi draft exemptions that were supposed to be based on yeshiva study.
That law was ruled to be unconstitutional by Israel’s High Court of Justice in February, but the law was allowed to remain in place until it expires on July 31 at 11:59:59 pm.
Netanyahu only wants to draft a limited number of haredim, to slowly phase in drafting them, and to stay the draft until haredim are 26-years-old, Ynet reported.
Most non-haredi Israelis enter the IDF at age 18. Netanyahu’s guidelines were written by former IDF Chief of Staff MK Moshe Ya’alon, a fellow member of Netanyahu’s Likud Party and a minister in his coalition government.
The Plesner Committee had called for 1,500 exceptionally talented yeshiva students to be exempted from military service while everyone else across the board would be drafted.
Netanyahu wants to draft a maximum 6,000 haredim per year, a much lower number than the Plesner Committee’s recommendation called for, but only after they turn 26. And he doesn’t want to reach that number per year until 2016 – giving haredim close to four years to find a way to completely block the draft.
Netanyahu’s guidelines make no mention of drafting women while they mandate the Defense Ministry to set up special IDF programs for haredim that include 45 hours of mandatory Torah study under haredi rabbis each week – which won’t leave haredi draftees much, if any, time to actually contribute to the country’s defense.
In contrast to the Plesner Committee’s findings, Netanyahu’s guidelines do not contain any immediate criminal or financial punishment for those haredim who fail to register for the draft or who refuse to serve, or for haredi yeshivas whose rabbis tell students not to serve.
Instead, Netanyahu, considered by many to be the most craven politician in the country’s history, wants to re-assess that situation in 2016.
However, his guidelines do say that draft dodgers would face punishment specified by law, including "negative monetary incentives.” But details are not specified. Yeshiva funding would be changed, however, to lower the amount each yeshiva gets per student if the yeshiva does not meet its quota of draftees. Yeshiva students who refuse to be drafted would also receive less money in school subsidy from the state.
"The Ya'alon guidelines [Netanyahu adopted] aren’t anything more than the Tal Law II – that is to say, a plan that allows draft-dodging and discrimination to continue. The main purpose isn't to implement the basic principle of equal service for all, which the High Court of Justice has ruled on and which the public supports. History won't forget the coalition members' betrayal of the public on this issue. We can only hope that the voters won't, either," Hidush head Rabbi Uri Regev said.
Netanyahu needs to keep haredi political parties as loyal coalition partners in order to retain power.
His proposed guidelines almost certainly violate the High Court’s ruling that voided the Tal Law.
But litigation to have Netanyahu's guidelines and any law that comes from them formally declared unconstitutional could take several years, meaning Netanyahu’s move will just kick the can further down the road, and may not lead to any haredim actually being drafted.