-- Asher Medina, Spokesman for Shas

Minister Goldknopf said something a little more questionable, but mostly along the same lines. Goldknopf said Netanyahu is like Moses leading the Jews out of Egypt - we are fully behind you and with you. Goldknopf said "we do not know what is good and what is not good. Any deal you bring, we will be with you. We must free all the hostages, until the last one. We pray all the hostages should return home safely."

After these comments were made the criticism was fast in coming, and mostly from the National Religious. The Director General of the Hatzionut Hadatit party Yehuda Wald criticized saying this attitude of leaving notes with their votes and leaving the meeting (referring to the government meeting to approve the hostage deal on Friday night two weeks ago) is outrageous and calling for an end to the war knowing it means Hamas will strengthen itself and resupply and reorganize - we are the ones who are going to fight and die after the next massacre, not the Haredim!   

Wald then accused the Haredim of cozying up to the "Left" and requesting a Haredi Draft Law that won't be harsh and significant, in exchange for submission to Hamas which is what the Left believes in.

The Haredim in return have responded saying they have held this position all along that they will support any hostage deal brought by Netanyahu as redeeming captives is the biggest of mitzvahs and it has nothing to do with the Draft Law.

First of all, the Left does not believe in submission to Hamas, even if they believe the war should be conducted differently in some aspects and if they look for a peaceful way to live together (which you can fairly and reasonably dispute is possible).

Second, Wald is talking like only the Dati Leumi are fighting in the war and having soldiers killed. Yes the Dati Leumi are, and in disproportional numbers, but they dont own the battlefield and they dont own the military funerals. They are fighting with and alongside all of Israel, true minus the Arabs and minus most Haredim, but alongside 85% of Israel..

Third, the Haredi politicians (always anonymously) have said over the past half year or so several times an end of the war would be good for them as it would loosen up the pressure on them about the draft issues. Formulating a draft law acceptable to them is difficult with the war ongoing. Is their support for a full hostage deal really motivated by it meaning the war will officially be over and they will subsequently be able to put together a more acceptable law proposal?

Fourth, the Draft Law is not dependent on the Left. We have a right wing government and they are having difficulty with the law regardless of the Left. And if the Left would form a government today, I do not believe they would be so forthcoming with an easy draft law in exchange for support. A few years ago they might have (and the Haredim claim such offers were made back then), but today, after October 7, it would not happen. Also, if the Haredim think it would happen just because it might have been offered a few years ago - they should have taken the deal then.

As an aside, back to my comment above about what Goldknopf said - I too did not like that they did not participate in the meeting and just left their votes on written slips of paper, even if we know because they said in advance they would support any deal brought by Netanyahu. As ministers it is their job and responsibility to hear the details and weigh the issues, not just to rely on someone else outsourcing the decisions - even if we know which way they are planning to vote.. What Goldknopf said today at the conference is more egregious than that. We dont know anything, we dont know what is goo and what is not good, we'll just rely on you. You are a minister and it is your job to be responsible and do due diligence and try to understand as much as possible what you are taking responsibility for. This is not the vaad bayit, the homeowners association, of your condo deciding whether to install a camera int he lobby or whether or not to plant more tulips in the building garden. The attitude of senior ministers who ultimately share responsibility for decisions made but outsource it with no interest in hearing details is preposterous. 

The first recruits to Hashmonaim (famously including Mendel Roth) just began their service a few short weeks ago. And it didn't take long for the first issues to arise and test their determination.

Benizri said whether the law is good or not good is irrelevant. If the Haredi gedolim do not come out explicitly saying young Haredi men [not learning full time in yeshivot] need to conscript into the army, they general Haredi community won't go, and nothing else about the law will make a difference.

האמת הפשוטה | השר לשעבר הרב שלמה בניזרי על חוק הגיוס המקודם בימים אלו:
"חוק לא מעשי, בלי קריאה של גדולי ישראל להתגייס - חרדים לא יתגייסו לצבא". pic.twitter.com/uz2ELEiYly

— ישי כהן (@ishaycoen) January 26, 2025

------------------------------------------------------
Reach thousands of readers with your ad by advertising on Life in Israel

------------------------------------------------------

Day of conscription, Moshe Weiner, in the first group of Haredim being drafted to the new Chashmonaim brigade, was accompanied by his friends from the Chabad yeshiva to the Induction Center (aka Bakum). All the friends were immediately thrown out of yeshiva.

Weiner said he decided to draft because he was wasting most of his time and only learning a little bit. good on him for taking it into his own hands, but these are the boys the yeshivas should be sending to the army. Do they think kicking out his friends is going to convince young men to not support their friends who choose to go to the army? Do they think they are stemming the tide? The boys did nothing wrong in supporting their friend. 

And, just to josh around a bit, I guess now there are 8 more young men available to join the new brigade!

------------------------------------------------------
Reach thousands of readers with your ad by advertising on Life in Israel

------------------------------------------------------

stay safe and best of luck!

------------------------------------------------------
Reach thousands of readers with your ad by advertising on Life in Israel

------------------------------------------------------

------------------------------------------------------
Reach thousands of readers with your ad by advertising on Life in Israel

------------------------------------------------------

------------------------------------------------------
Reach thousands of readers with your ad by advertising on Life in Israel

------------------------------------------------------

What's the issue? That is actually the best of the worst scenarios that some int he coalition have been demanding - leave the yeshiva guys alone and go after the guys not in yeshiva as they dont deserve an exemption but should be drafted! So what's the problem? 

According to the Finance Ministry officials, going after working haredim will cause significant financial damage. Their thinking is, according to the report, twofold:

1. any Haredim working are likely too old to be useful in the army as a replacement for combat soldiers in a war, so this doesn't help much.

2. Haredim working will leave the workforce to avoid the army draft notices, which will damage the economy to the tune of billions of shekels..

I would like to know what the first problem is based on, what is the source, as I know plenty of young Haredim who are working rather than learning or serving, so it is not just old haredim who are working. So even if is true for some, there are still probably plenty of young enough Haredim working to help the military effort and be useful in some way.

Regarding the second problem if their approach is that the economy is more important than the military and taking young Haredi men to the army will hurt the economy, why not demand an exemption for all young men so they can work and help the economy instead of going to the army? Drafting young men who could be working all over Israel must be costing the economy trillions or more every year! "ela mah", that's not much of an argument - the nation has decided that young men and women of a certain age need to do military service at the expense of getting a degree or working or traveling or anything else they might want to do regardless of how beneficial it is or isnt.

A Haredi organization that works against the drafting of Haredim to the IDF has supposedly gotten permission to run a campaign on the Internet to catch the weaker kids and help prevent them from joining the army by responding to the draft notices..

In the, fairly well done, video they try to show how hard the army is - you have to listen to commanders and you have to exert yourself with physical activity like running...

------------------------------------------------------
Reach thousands of readers with your ad by advertising on Life in Israel

------------------------------------------------------

Since the war began, once it became apparent this would be a long war, I felt that the situation will have to change, people wont be so forgiving about tens of thousands of young men being let out of the draft while others have to serve for so long. While I dont have a solution I do believe this is largely a missed opportunity by Haredi leadership to propose a solution. Instead of proposing a solution they chose to dig in their heels and fight against the drafting of Haredi men with no compromises. 

Had they proposed a solution that would have drafted a reasonable number of people from the Haredi community (whether it would be those who don't learn in yeshiva full time or to draft into the religious services portion of the army, to do National Service within the Haredi community, or to establish some sort of medical corp adjacent to the army that Haredim would serve in, etc), I think most of Israel would have been ok with that, in some form or another, and the issue would have been put to rest. They dug their heels in and refused to talk about anything, and now even the above suggestion likely wouldnt be enough - now people just want them int he army, after a nearly 14 months of people serving multiple times in Gaza and Lebanon, families collapsing, fathers of ten being killed in battle, people losing jobs and businesses going under..people by now have had enough. 

So to me, this is mostly a missed opportunity of the Haredi leadership.

That being said, I do have two questions, one for each side:

1. For those of you who think it is too late, Haredim have to draft - how do you solve this? Draft them and then what - will they go to the army or will they refuse? Are you going to send in police to arrest the rabbis and thousands of yeshiva students, until they agree to go, which they very well might not? How does this get resolved for the good of Israeli society?

2. For those of you who are against drafting the Haredim (because they don't want to be drafted), how do you explain to the rest of the nation collapsing under the burden of this extended war why tens of thousands of young healthy men are not participating and relieving middle aged men from such long stays on the battlefield? How do you sell the difference why some people (most of the country) can be forced to serve but some people shouldn't be forced to serve?

I have seen people argue incessantly online over the past few months about should they or shouldn't they be drafted, but I haven't seen anyone explain how it could work, in either direction... I would like to hear how a forced draft could work, and I would like to hear how a mass exemption could work. The government will do whatever it finds politically expedient to do, without actually doing whatever it thinks to be morally and practically the right thing. If they pass the law to grant the exemptions, it wont suddenly resolve the arguments in society so I would like to hear ideas how this can be resolved in a way that most people would be ok with.

------------------------------------------------------
Reach thousands of readers with your ad by advertising on Life in Israel

------------------------------------------------------

Sad. Disconnected. Even enraging. This disconnect is what so many people including in the National Religious are so upset about right now, and they just dont get it. 

We dont have to daven to finish the war so that no more young men, and middle aged men, will die. We dont have to daven to finish the war to bring some stability back to the people of Israel, to the citizens, to the economy. We dont have to daven for the end of the war for the hostages to come home.  We have to daven for the end of the war so that the National Religious people will finally agree to a Draft Law so that we, or almost none of us, will have to go to the army.

the real winner of the USA Presidential Elections is once again the Haredi newspapers and magazines who dont have to figure out how to write about the President without showing a picture

:-)

------------------------------------------------------
Reach thousands of readers with your ad by advertising on Life in Israel

------------------------------------------------------

The article says the MIK Moshe Saada (Likud proposed a law to grant additional special benefits and whatnot to reservists. One of the clauses int he proposal states that any institution whose students do not draft to the IDF will not get any government allocations/budgets.

UTJ found this clause and says that this clause presents an existential danger to the yeshivas.

According to Yated, UTJ has let the Likud know that if this clause remains included in the law to be presented UTJ will see itself as not obligated to vote on other laws presented by the Likud demanding coalition support.

A few points:

1. Didnt the UTJ gedolim recently plan for decoupling the yeshivas from the government budgets and went out and raised $110 million (plus)? Why would this be such a serious problem for the yeshivas if this was already planned for?

2. Again, like what I pointed out yesterday, interestingly the threat is not to leave the government but to not vote on Likud law proposals in line with the coalition. A law proposal that UTJ is considering to be a serious threat against the yeshivas and UTJ isnt even bluffing with threats to leave the coalition!

I must say, it does seem that even though PM Netanyahu and some others in the Likud might not be on board yet, many in the Likud have had enough with the situation. They all know and recognize the crisis they would be causing when they say they won't support this or that by other coalition members, including the Haredi parties, and they are causing the crises anyway.. 

  -- Minister Yitzchak Goldknopf, after threatening again that the Draft Law must be passed before the budget or else.

It actually looked for a moment as if they were coming down from the tree once again as yesterday anonymous UTJ people commented that the law doesnt need to be passed before the budget but they need to see it advanced and see that it is being taken seriously. Goldknopf seems to have shot that down today.

On the one hand, this might be the first time he is saying to draft those who do not learn. I think many would have agreed to a compromise a long time ago had that been the policy in the Haredi leadership - let the ones who do not learn go to the army and the ones who do would be exempt. Unfortunately they always protected the ones who do not learn as well. 

Goldknopf can always be counted on to come up with gems that will upset many

Finance Minister Betzalel Smotritch penned a letter to the Deputy Attorney General and some others saying basically that he is the Finance Minister and it is his decision to continue the subsidies, their decision to cancel them will destroy the economy, etc. He expressed frustration that he was not consulted before their decision was made, etc etc

Interestingly, the Haredi parties have expressed anger, or maybe frustration, at Smotritch. They say his turning this into a big deal will just make it worse for them and escalate the matter to becoming a constitutional crisis pitting the government against the legal system and it will only make things worse. He might be the only person there trying to help (even if he has ulterior motives, and he likely does), but they get upset at him...

I dont know what their approach should be. They dont really have good options. Smotritch is being a bit disingenuous when he talks about stopping of subsidies wont cause a single Haredi to be drafted. he is right (maybe) but that is not the point of stopping subsidies. The Attorney General does not get involved in trying to draft Haredim - that is a political issue. The Attorney General is saying that continuing to grant these discounts and subsidies to Haredim is illegal considering their status as draft dodgers. According to the position of the attorney General, it does not matter if it will help draft Haredim or not, and that is not the point or what they are trying to do by canceling the subsidies. They are just saying if the Haredim refuse to draft it is illegal to give them these financial benefits.

The only real way to get the subsidies back legally is to pass a law that solves the Haredi draft issue. Once that is done and the Haredi public will no longer legally be considered draft dodgers, they will get their subsidies back. Obviously there is n simple solution for this. If there were, the draft issue would have been resolved long ago...

The big money in the government supporting yeshivas and kollel was never the actual stipend. The big money was always the daycare subsidies, the arnona discounts, discounted camps and discounts in many other things