Israel’s Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon told haredi members of Knesset Wednesday in a letter that the IDF will ensure "women-free and secular-free" induction centers for haredi yeshiva students to accommodate haredi rabbis' demands to ban all women and secular Jews from induction centers where haredi yeshiva students must under law report.
Above: Moshe Ya'alon
Defense Minister Says He Will Set Up “Women-Free And Secular-Free" IDF Induction Centers For Haredim
Shmarya Rosenberg • FailedMessiah.com
Israel’s Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon told haredi members of Knesset Wednesday in a letter that the IDF will ensure "women-free and secular-free" induction centers for haredi yeshiva students to accommodate haredi rabbis' demands to ban all women and secular Jews from induction centers where haredi yeshiva students must under law report, Ynet reported.
But those haredi yeshiva students will not be reporting to sign up for military duty. Instead, they will be reporting to the induction centers to get draft exemptions.
"If the haredi public's leaders join the move, we believe it will be possible to coordinate special separate days for a significant part of the population which will be defined as 'a day for yeshiva students reporting to the centers,’” Ya'alon wrote in a letter to the haredi MKs, and indicated that this accommodation would be tried out several times in the very near future in coordination with the haredi Yeshiva Committee (if it agrees).
"The haredi candidates' arrival has been adjusted to their needs on a long series of issues, in order to allow us to implement the processes of IDF enlistment, service postponement and granting an exemption," Ya’alon reportedly wrote, adding that the IDF believes that separate days for haredi yeshiva students at induction centers will allow the recruitment center to "focus its attention and resources" on them. “This joint activity will not affect the processes taking place at the recruitment center for the general public,” Ya’alon wrote – although this is not at all clear.
Ya’alon – who has repeatedly been criticized by the High Court of Justice for skirting or violating existing rulings to appease haredim – indicated that he was willing to make more compromises, as long as haredi leaders cooperated with the IDF rather than fighting it.
"The IDF will be prepared to make further adjustments, as long as this is done with the haredi public leaders' cooperation and as long as they take responsibility,” Ya'alon wrote.
Ya’alon’s letter was delivered to haredi MKs just before the Council of Torah Sages of the Agudath Israel faction of the Ashkenazi haredi United Torah Judaism Party met to discuss the induction center issue.
"In the past few months the radical voice in the Council of Torah Sages appeared to be growing stronger, but the semi-official letter from the defense minister's bureau is capable of stopping the flow and softening the rebbes' approach. It all depends on these agreements and cooperation. If the rebbes realize that these IDF officials and those facing them are 'men of their word,' the feeling will be mutual. On the other hand, the moment the army starts 'playing' with them, things will change and the rope will be torn once the Hasidic [i.e. Agudath Israel faction’s] Council [of Torah sages] joins the call not to report to the recruitment centers,” Yisrael Cohen of the Kikar Hashabat haredi news website, told Ynet.
Ya’alon’s office defended the “secular-fee, women-free” haredi induction center days by claiming they were being insituted to make it easier for haredim to enlist.
“In order to encourage haredim to enlist with the IDF, it has been decided to allow candidates for military service to report to the recruitment center at certain hours, in order to provide them with suitable conditions for the IDF recruitment process. In any event, the process will not affect girls or non-haredi candidates for military service,” Ya’alon’s office claimed.
Haredi rabbis are vehemently opposed to any haredi yeshiva students serving in the IDF no matter what accommodations, reasonable or otherwise, are made for them. Even haredim who have no desire to continue studying in yeshiva have ben banned by their rabbis from enlisting, and is likely that unless the IDF allows haredim to be drafted into special units that never see female or secular soldiers and that spend the vast majority of their days and nights studying Torah with haredi rabbi-teachers, haredi rabbis will always continue to do everything in their power to stop haredim for serving.
It is also likely that “female-free, secular-free” days at induction centers is illegal.
But Ya’alon and Prime Minister Benajamin Netanyahu, both members of the right of center Likud Party and rivals for its leadership, have both repeatedly shown themselves willing to skirt or disregard High Court rulings (and even blackletter law) when it serves their interests. Both men have done their utmost over the past year to appease haredi rabbinic and political leaders because for Likud to retain power after the next election, it likely will need to make a coalition that includes haredi political parties.