Hebrew newspaper writers on Wednesday highlighted the Israeli Supreme Court’s decision that the Haredim must be drafted into the army, and that religious schools will be denied government funding if their students do not serve.
One writer considered that the public is frustrated and will not accept what he called the symbolic recruitment of this group, while another saw the decision as a dramatic attempt to return the State of Israel to the logical path, and a third warned that failure to issue and implement this decision would constitute an existential threat to Israel.
No to symbolic recruitment
Haaretz writer Amos Harel said that the unanimous decision of the Supreme Court justices indicates that “the operational need and cost of the war require an increase in the scope of recruitment for the Israeli army as a moral standard and for professional and operational considerations, and this is not only related to the war in Gaza and the risk of a larger war in Lebanon, but also related to Realizing that Israel is expected to face at least a decade of escalating regional challenges, such as Iran’s strengthening and building of the “Ring of Fire” by arming militias around Israel’s borders, and also the fact that we fell into our weakness 8 and a half months ago.
The military analyst spoke in some detail about the numbers required for the Israeli army, and said, “In internal discussions, representatives of the Israeli army estimated that they now need 8,000 soldiers immediately, given the weight of the tasks and because of the losses and attrition to which the regular units were exposed in the long war.”
He pointed out that “communications with the government and the Attorney General’s Office are now underway to deal with the recruitment of 3,000 ultra-Orthodox soldiers, in addition to the recruitment of young people who have left school, as the government’s legal advisor, Gali Beharev Meara, explained yesterday that the 3,000 is only a preliminary number and does not fully reflect the needs of the government.” “The army, and it will be necessary to increase it in the future.”
But Harel warned in this context that “the army would make a mistake if it joined another maneuver cooked up by the Knesset and the government and satisfied itself with this limited conscription demand, because that would negatively affect the soldiers in the field.”
Regarding the post-decision scenarios, he said, “It appears that the survival of the coalition faces some danger from two aspects. Firstly, the protest movement demanding elections may expand, in light of the anger prevailing among sectors of the public over inequality in employment, and the second and perhaps most important thing is that the ultra-Orthodox Jews They themselves worry that perhaps all that is needed in the end is one ultra-Orthodox Ashkenazi rabbi listened to by a United Torah Judaism MK, to motivate other rabbis and members of the community to consider resolving the long-term alliance with Likud.
A threat to our very existence
As for Ben Caspit, a writer in the Maariv newspaper, he began criticizing the ultra-Orthodox Jews, and said, “In a reformed world, where all people are equal and the highest interest is the existence and security of the state and not the government coalition, the ultra-Orthodox Jews should have voluntarily announced on the day following October 7 that they realize the extent of The challenge is to join the people of Israel and impose on themselves the duty of conscription into the Israeli Defense Forces.”
He added, “We are aware that Iran derives great encouragement from the tremendous success achieved by the elite forces since October 7 in order to develop and strengthen its plan to carry out the final coup against us, and therefore the Supreme Court’s decision may be the first bad news that Iran has received since October 7. The accession of a sector that includes… “More than a million people joining the effort to defend Israel is difficult news for everyone who defends it.”
The writer did not limit himself to attacking the ultra-Orthodox Jews only because of their rejection of the court’s decision, but he also directed the accusation against Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and Chairman of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Security Committee Yuli Edelstein, noting that “Gallant was the first to announce that he would not present the compulsory conscription law on behalf of the security establishment without consensus.” And Edelstein, too, joined him and personally announced the conscription law that his committee was considering.”
He added, “These two declarations, which overnight turned Gallant and Edelstein into traitors and small-minded people, will prevent a situation in which the new State of Israel will replace the old state, which for years allowed a growing segment of the population to enjoy a scandalous, sweeping, and illegal exemption from the duty to participate in the existence of a Jewish state.” in Israel”.
He also attacked Aryeh Deri, head of the Shas party, who criticized the Supreme Court’s decision when he said, “There is no power in the world that will prevent the people of Israel from studying the Torah, and whoever tried to do so in the past failed miserably.”
The writer said that the religious people rejected the decision “because their real fear is not harming the Torah, but rather harming the privileges of this sector.”
He concluded that not approving this resolution would have “constituted a threat to our very existence,” and added, “If Israel wants to survive, it must enact a law based on a principle formulated one day by (Prime Minister) Benjamin Netanyahu: Give, take, if they do not give.” They will not take it, and these matters are supposed to apply to all citizens of the state, whether Jews, Arabs, Ashkenazi, secularists, leftists, or rightists. Military or civil service is obligatory for every young man who reaches the age of 18, and whoever does not perform his duty will have his rights taken away from him: no social security, and no income support. No driver’s license, no right to vote, no bonuses, discounts or benefits.”
Fell trick
As for Nadav El, a writer for Yedioth Ahronoth, he said, “We will remember the Supreme Court’s decision as a dramatic attempt to return the State of Israel to the logical path.”
El Israel described it as “a large ship that has long since deviated from its course and water has entered the engine room, and the captain is dozing while the enemy regularly fires shells.”
While he stressed that “Israeli society is extremely divided and filled with bitterness,” he considered that “when the nation is fighting for its life and the enormous security challenges expand, this deep disparity cannot withstand.”
He added, “I heard the words of Rabbi Lando, one of the leaders of the Lithuanian public. The day before the Supreme Court decision was issued, there was something interesting in this formula, a new type of ultra-Orthodoxy, ultra-Orthodox rabbis who talk about the secularists in the authorities as cruel and evil.”
He added, “The authorities are not evil because they are secular, but because they refuse to give money from the state to the ultra-Orthodox world.”
Lithuanian leader Rabbi Dov Landau launched a sharp attack on the Supreme Court during a luncheon to raise funds for religious schools in Manhattan, New York, USA.
The rabbi said, according to the Israeli Channel 12, “We came from the Land of Israel. The situation of Torah students there is terrible. The evil ones there and the authorities have seized the budgets that were going to schools and religious institutes, and they are in a situation where they have no possibility of continuing. Some colleges have already been closed, due to the evils of the authorities”.
The writer described the court’s decision as “a complete dismissal of discrimination in recruitment. This is good news, because the era of deception is over. It is not possible to maintain a large army to protect us in this difficult time, while increasing segments of the public are evading. There are many other deceptions: it is impossible for an educated Western society to discriminate against large numbers of the population and turn into a Third World situation. Yesterday, the Supreme Court unanimously tried to put an end to a dangerous deception, but this is not the beginning of the end, and it is not even the end of the beginning.”