Not the
The
Minority’s Army
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1192380808262&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
In today’s Jerusalem Post, Amnon Rubinstein once again incites against the Hareidi public by blaming the growth in so called draft
dodging on the Hareidim. He cites army figures which
show that the percentage of Jewish males who did not serve in the army in 2007 was 27.7
percent, compared to 11.2 percent in 1991. He claims that almost half of these
exemptions go to the Ultraorthodox (i.e. Hareidim). The rest, he says, fall into the categories of
medical problems, being abroad and criminal records.
In
another inciting article in the Jerusalem Post on July 25, 2007, the JP said “According to the IDF, 11 out of the 25% of Israeli
youth who do not enlist in the IDF were yeshiva students…” See Original Article.
So what we see first of all, is
that Rubinstein is exaggerating the percentage who are Hareidi
in order to incite against us. Second of all, he attributes the rise in so
called draft dodging to Hareidim.
He totally ignores the huge rise in the percentage of
leftists and in general disenchanted “post Zionist” youth who have been
indoctrinated by the left to think that
He throws in another gratuitous insult at the Hareidim
Nor is it reasonable to forcibly recruit tens of
thousands of haredi youth, who will fervently resist
any attempt to be compelled to serve, and even if recruited would not do their
jobs properly, making army routine a living nightmare.
He also encourages enlisting Arabs in the Army and views as
a positive result of this decreasing the inequality between Jews and Arabs.
Before we discuss the issue of draft dodging, Hareidim in the army, etc. I will tell you that I served on
the Draft Board in
Let us look at the history of the alleged Hareidi exemption from army service in
First we must state most forcibly that there is not a Hareidi exemption from the draft. There is an exemption for
full time yeshiva students. This exemption is found in every western nation
(and
Second, we must look at the history of the yeshiva student
draft exemption. When Ben Gurion wanted to establish a
state, he knew that he needed to have at least the silent agreement of the Hareidi leadership. The United Nations was being pressured
into accepting a so called Jewish state based on the Torah concept that Eretz Yisroel (the
So Ben Gurion made what has come
to be called the “status quo agreement”. He agreed that marriage, divorce and
conversion would be controlled by the orthodox rabbonim,
and that yeshiva students would be exempt from the army, and that the status
quo would be maintained in regard to Shabbath buses,
theaters, etc. (i.e. in places, such as Haifa, where the buses already ran on Shabbath, they would continue to so so,
and in places such as Jerusalem where they didn’t, they would not. In return
for these “concessions”, the Hazon Ish and the Brisker Rav quietly allowed
Ben Gurion to take the reins of government.
Bit by bit, the leftists (yemach shemam) and their leading advocates the so called supreme
court (ym”sh) have been chipping away at this agreement
ever since. A deal is a deal and a contract is a contract. Even if you have
later regrets, if the other party has already made detrimental reliance on your
offer, you may not back out on the deal.
Ignoring for a moment the issue of whether the yeshiva
students should have been given an exemption, couching this in terms of Hareidim is illegal incitement against a sector of the
population and is also a falsification of the situation. Hareidim
are not exempt, yeshiva students are.
Second of all, exaggerating the percentage of those
exempted who are hareidim is also a falsification
made for the purpose of incitement. Attributing the huge rise in the exemption
percentage to the rise in the Hareidi population is
also incorrect and done for the purpose of incitement. Most of the rise is
because of nonHareidi disenchantment with the army or
with army service or with
Third of all, Rubenstein collectively calls the exemptees “draft dodgers”. In fact a draft dodger is
someone who is required to serve but does not do so. This is more incitement.
He laments nonreligious women’s attempts to avoid the draft
by declaring that they are religious or entering into fake marriages. Women
should not be drafted into the army. Furthermore, any woman is entitled not to
want to serve in an army which is rife with sexual harassment including a rape
conviction against the minister of defense and numerous other officers who
force, either physically or due to their position of authority unwanted sexual
attention on soldiers under their command.
Now let us look further. Why would a leftist want to serve
in an army to defend a country when al of his leaders and heroes claim that we
have no real right to the country? Why would anyone want to serve in an army
and risk his life when if he defends himself against the Arab enemies, he may
find himself arrested and tried for his efforts? Why would someone want to risk
his life when the politicians (yemach shemam) are going to free the terrorists a short time later
and are going to deliver more Jewish land into the hands of our enemies? Why
would a religious person want to serve in the army or a settler when the army
is used to make war on the religious and the settlers? Why would a religious
person want to serve in the army when the army tries hard to force him to sin? (Examples
include putting men and women together in close, secluded quarters such as
tanks, operations on Shabbath which have no military
necessity such as patrols to keep jewish
demonstrators out of gush Katiph or destroying Jewish
settlements on Shabbath.) why
should a religious person want to serve when there is so much blatant
discrimination against the religious in the army? (For instance Effie Eitam was not made head of the army because he wears a kippah.)
And yet, plenty of religious men do serve in the army. As a
matter of fact, 40% of those graduating officer training courses are religious,
and the most committed soldiers throughout the army are religious, despite the
fact that the army and its political masters have declared war on religious
Jews and the Jewish religion.
Caroline
Glick, THE
http://shilohmusings.blogspot.com/2006/05/must-read.html
Today, the national religious
sector makes up some 15 percent of the overall population, yet its sons make up
more than 30 percent of combat soldiers in the IDF.
Soldiers from the national religious camp make up a plurality of cadets in
combat officer training courses and a majority of soldiers in most commando
units.
SOME 60 percent of NCOs in combat units graduated from national
religious high schools and last year, 80 percent of company commanders
in Golani infantry brigade were from the national
religious camp. National religious officers are similarly overrepresented - by
a ratio of between 2:1 to 4:1 in all combat units to the
level of battalion command in the IDF.
The fact is that we do need an army. In fact an army to
protect against external enemies and police to protect against criminals (and
neither to be used against citizens pursuing their normal activities of living
in the
Ideally, only Shomer Shabbath (Sabbath observing) Jews should be allowed in the
army. They can be trusted not to ally with our enemies. They can be trusted not
to make war on innocent Jews trying to fulfill G-d’s
will.
In any case, if you want religious men to serve in the
army, you must make it a legitimate army (not one which makes war on the
religious population) in which one can serve as a religious Jew. Of course all
of the food must be properly kosher. Sabbath may only be violated for an
operational necessity against the enemy or to protect or preserve or save the
lives of Jews. Third, women should not be in the army. Most
important of all, stop making war against your own fine citizens. Don’t use the army to give
If you want the nonreligious to serve, you must end in the
schools, universities and media the deligitimization
of our right to this land. You must teach that the
In the meantime, stop the Hareidi
bashing, you, Rubinstein, and you