Haredi Anti-Army/Draft Riots

I have absolutely no tolerance nor understanding for any anti-draft/IDF actions/riots etc here in Israel or any place else. The State of Israel is under constant threat and periodic attacks. From the Jewish point of view, that makes serving in the IDF a great mitzvah, Torah commandment, because it saves lives.

Prior to the Israeli Declaration of Independence, while we found ourselves defending ourselves against the Arabs and British, the "underground" forces, Haganah, Palmach, Etzel and Lechi had a complete cross-section of volunteers of all types of Jews in the Land of Israel. That included secular, traditional, religious and hareidi. 

In the early days of the State of Israel, Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion made an agreement with the hareidim that they could get a deferment for full-time yeshiva students and religious women. The yeshiva students were expected to support the state by their prayers and learning. Of course, many of us believe that Ben-Gurion was "generous" in granting a deferment, because he wanted to isolate the then small number of hareidim from the rest of the population. He didn't want religious interference or influence in the IDF.

While there has been great improvement and changes in the IDF for strictly religious soldiers, certain  hareidi factions have become dangerously and violently more intolerant of the army and soldiers. Jerusalem has been plagued by frequent violent anti-draft riots. Last week, I found myself waiting for buses that couldn't come to the stop, because they had been rerouted. There was no notification. Public transportation and many main thoroughfares were closed or rerouted when possible.

Ordinary citizens, young and old, religious and secular have suffered physically due to travel difficulties. This is all because young, fit hareidi men are wasting their energy rioting, rather than serving the Jewish People, rather than doing mitzvot, Torah Commandments.

They claim that their time in the Batei Midrash, Study halls are too precious to waste in the IDF, but they have lots of time to riot, attack the police and endanger the health and welfare of innocent Jews. There is absolutely nothing to support their behavior in the Torah.

Senior citizens touring the Underground Museum, Russian Compound, where Jewish fighters were held prisoners  by the British Mandate before the establishment of the State of Israel.

Lapid's Tirades vs Chareidim and Army Wrong

This post is also on Israel Blogger as Chareidim to IDF with Honey not Lapid’s Tirades.

The truth is that I do think that the chareidim and the extreme Leftists who have been finding lots of loopholes to to get out of IDF service should serve. But there's one thing for sure. Yair Lapid's hateful and spiteful tirades against the exemption for chareidim will only make them oppose army service more. And all those religious people who support him, like Dov Lipman, should take Lapid's rabid anti-chareidi statements more seriously. Lapid doesn't have the personality characteristics to make him a national leader of the State of Israel.

Chareidim aren't a small marginal part of the Israeli demographics, the way they were seventy years ago as the modern State of Israel came into being. A very large portion of the First Graders each year are in various chareidi educational frameworks, and the percentage shows no real sign of shrinking. One of the big problems in chareidi society and families is the vast difference in educational curriculum between the girls and the boys. The girls generally study enough English and math to pass the Bagrut, Matriculation exams, study a profession and support their families. The boys have an extremely limited curriculum, which sometimes even ignores Hebrew as a spoken language, besides not teaching English and Mathematics. This not only limits professional opportunities, but it can make for difficult homelife.

Lapid's We're done being suckers statements only makes army service into an unbearable burden for fools/"suckers," rather than an opportunity to serve one's country, mature, make lifelong friends and even learn a profession or complete a Bagrut Diploma.

I have no doubt that by being amenable, understanding and sympathetic, plus offering an extensive "end of service educational package," more and more chareidim will decide that it is to their advantage to serve in the IDF. To make it more suitable, the teachers should be male, preferably religious/chareidi, and some will be graduates of the program who undergo teacher training. The added bonus will be a new cadre of chareidi men qualified to teach academic subjects. That's the educational revolution that must happen here in Israel, the sooner the better.

TW3, That Was The Week That Was, The Best Israeli Version; IDF and the Chareidim

In less than two minutes, Latma's Hebrew's Word 12.4  brilliantly summarizes the past week's news. 



The writers bring up some excellent points.

• This week's theme is no matter how hard the Israeli media tried, they couldn't find good pictures of chareidim goofing off, ignoring the sirens on Holocaust Memorial Day.  The result was that the people most active during the sirens and who the least understand the significance of the day were the media. 

This anti-chareidi theme is related to the fact that Likud's Binyamin Netanyahu's latest/newest coalition must find a solution on how to draft chareidim into the IDF Israel Defense Forces without totally alienating the chareidim who have been locked out  of the government coalition as part of the demands of the Yesh Atid-Bayit Yehudi aka Lapid-Bennett block.

The Bayit Yehudi (Jewish Home) Party, which is the former Mafdal, NRP, National Religious Party, which had been dying a slow death until Naftali Bennett  took it over and gave it a total facelift.  One aspect of his campaign was to stress his elite fighting army service.  Actually, showing MK wannabes' IDF records was one of the two main campaign points of many parties. The other was to campaign as saviors and protectors of the elderly.  About that, I still haven't seen an increase in my state old age payments from Bituach Le'umi, National Insurance.  I'd love more money each month. It would come in very handy.

Israeli politicians and media are claiming that the unfair disproportionate burden of army service and milu'im, reserve duty is because of the chareidi exemptions, although it's actually growing faster from the secular Left, the youth too self-centered and non-patriotic to serve in the army.

It's always easier to blame the very/extreme religious aka the chareidim.  Don't get me wrong. I do think that they should serve, as should the secular Left, but this is a slow process for the better of the army and Israeli society in general.  Soldiers must be well motivated.  No doubt a large part of the Gilad Schalit fiasco is due to the fact he didn't have the mental toughness to be on the frontlines.  His father ran the campaign to get him released as if it was all the fault of Israel and Israel should pay any price no matter what the ultimate cost to security would be.

We must remember that today's Israel Defense Force isn't a peacetime army.  We are surrounded by enemy countries and international NGO's and anarchists who aim to destroy us.  Even the countries like the United States that claim to be our allies promote policies that totally endanger us.

There is absolutely no way that we can make peace with the Arabs who want us off the map and into the sea.

The Israeli War for Independence is till being fought, and we must win!

David Ben-Gurion, A New Look Re:Religon and Army Exemptions

Today I was talking to a neighbor who told me that he's in the middle of a book about IDF Chief Rabbi HaRav Shlomo Goren.  One of the things that surprised him was the good relationship between HaRAv Goren and Israel's first Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion, even though Ben-Gurion is known as being rather anti-religious.  Whenever HaRav Goren needed something, Ben-Gurion agreed.  My neighbor found that surprising. 

That made me think.

One of the biggest issues in Israel today is whether or not to continue the draft exemption for fulltime yeshiva students. This law was due to an agreement Israel's first Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion had made with  the Chazon Ish, Rabbi Avraham Yeshayahu Karelitz.  My feeling about it has always been that Ben-Gurion did not want chareidim in the IDF because he didn't want a religious army.  Maybe Ben-Gurion's acquiescences to the Chazon Ish and Rabbi Goren was for a different reason, and I'm not referring to the one mentioned on Israel Matzav:

As many of you know (because some of you have even met me there), I attend a weekly Torah class in Jerusalem. The rabbi who gives the class once told us that he met a man who knew someone who had asked David Ben Gurion why he allowed a religious education system to be created in the new state at all. Ben Gurion responded that he figured that within a generation, all attachment to traditional Judaism would die out anyway, so why fight with them. On this, as on many other matters, Ben Gurion was clearly wrong.

Ben-Gurion certainly wasn't nice to the Revisionists, Jabotinsky, Menachem Begin, those who had fought for Israel's independence with the Etzel and Lechi.  He had even sent the Palmach to shoot at the Jews on the Altalena, a horrendous act for sure.

Could Ben-Gurion's agreement to defer/exempt hareidim, studying full-time in yeshivot from the IDF have been to get the political support and loyalty of the chareidi leadership?  Ben-Gurion would do anything to make sure that Menachem Begin's Herut Party would stay out of power.

Well, what do you think?