Israeli rabbi: Religious people volunteering to participate in prayer for those fighting in the field is no longer enough (Reuters)
An Israeli Jewish rabbi issued an urgent appeal to the ultra-Orthodox (Haredim) to join the army immediately like other reserve soldiers, and without even waiting for a vote on a law in this regard.
Israeli Rabbi Shai Biron - a former Minister of Education - added in an opinion article in Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper entitled “Let them enlist now and wait for the law” that religious people volunteering to participate in prayers for those fighting in the field is no longer enough, as they are not part of the scene and their children are no longer dead in coffins. , As he says.
He said that the army is now in dire need of large numbers of soldiers in the war that Israel is waging, and that the Haredim must join military service immediately, but the law on their recruitment can wait.
Biron wrote that the Haredim know that reserve soldiers currently constitute more than half of the army’s deaths in Gaza, and he proposed what he called a “flexible partnership” to make the effort to recruit them successful.
According to this partnership, Peron proposes to allow the ultra-Orthodox to have their own brigades, which can be formed without any outside influence while continuing their lives as “haredim.”
He added that the disagreement with this segment of Israeli society is deep and unmistakable, including the disagreement over the nature of the state and the position on the Zionist movement, recalling that their refusal to conscription is primarily due to their refusal to be an essential part of the state.
According to Biron, the moment of truth in the history of the Haredi movement has arrived and cannot be ignored. He said that the theory that claims that their recruitment will occur as a natural result of a long process has proven to fail, and he urged members of this segment not to believe politicians who promise them the success of voting for a law that grants them collective exemption. Because people refuse to do so, and because the rules of the game have changed.
Recently, the crisis of the participation of religious Jews (Haredim) in the occupation army came to the fore in light of the Israeli aggression on Gaza, as religious Jewish leaders renewed their opposition to conscription in the occupation army and emphasized that their role is to study the Torah.
The participation of the Haredim in the army is one of the most sensitive and tense issues in Israeli society, as secularists oppose the religious Jews not being recruited and their gaining advantages beyond what they offer to Israel.
Since the beginning of the Al-Aqsa Flood Battle, Israeli media reports have indicated the desire of religious Jews to enlist in the army to participate in the war, despite their official exemption from this mission.
Source: Israeli press