Strassler: The real reason for the Haredim to evade military conscription is to protect the lives of their children, and their lack of recognition of the state (Al Jazeera)
Israeli writer Nehemia Strassler published an article in the newspaper "Haaretz" about what he said was the real reason, according to his point of view, for the reluctance of Haredi (Eastern) Jews to conscript their children into the Israeli army.
He said that secular Israelis must realize that the ultra-Orthodox do not respect them and teach their children to despise them.
They do not recognize the state, and are anti-Zionist.
To them, “we are simply a financial reserve that must be stolen.”
He added that the Haredim view the secular government as a foreign government that must be exploited, deceived, lied to, and extorted as much money as possible from it.
They see the state not as the beginning of “salvation,” but as a direct continuation of biblical exile.
They have no problem not fulfilling civic duties
Strassler goes on to say that for the Haredim, the government was like the non-Jewish landowner that the Jews in Eastern Europe had to work with and had to live with, which is why they had no problem not fulfilling any civic duty: teaching the basic curriculum, working, and serving in the army.
When asked, in private conversations, to answer the question: Why don't they serve in the army?, they are surprised and answer with another question: "Why should we be drafted to fight in the wars you are waging? You want to fight, you can serve. We are not willing to sacrifice our children." For the sake of your country."
The writer explains that over the years, the Haredim have come up with all kinds of reasons to avoid compulsory conscription, saying: This time, the Haredi Chief Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef stood out with what the writer described as his “empty talk,” as he says: “Without the Torah, without religious schools for married men, there will be no "There is one thing. There will be no success for the army. The army only succeeds thanks to those who study the Torah. The Torah is what protects us."
Racial justification
There is also another funny argument for the draft evasion project, the writer adds, as Rabbi Yosef says: The Haredim are “Levites”, descended from the Levite tribes, and are exempt from military service.
The writer comments that Joseph seems to have knowledge of research on lineage and race, and in fact it seems that the Haredim are descended from the tribes of Gad and Reuven, in which the Prophet of God Moses said: “Do your brothers go to war, and you sit here?”, which indicates that there has always been Conscription evaders.
The writer continues to reveal the real reason for the Haredim abstaining from military service, saying that we can learn about the Haredi position towards Israeli soldiers from the statements of two prominent leaders in the Orthodox movement, one of whom is Rabbi Dov Landau, who advises religious school students not to attend military funerals or even make hospital visits. To wounded soldiers, he says “Let them die in peace, what does it matter?”
The other is Rabbi Yisrael Bunim Schreiber, who says that IDF soldiers are like “garbage men,” and “we don’t care who they killed, they have no connection to us, they are not our brothers.”
The real reason is to protect the lives of their children
The writer goes back to saying that it is time to realize that the real reason for the Haredim’s evasion is the clear and direct desire to protect the lives of their children.
Even Haredi legislators are elected according to their commitment to the teachings of the sect.
The writer called for the secular response to the Haredim to be no less severe and clear: compulsory conscription for all Haredim, at the age of 18, without exemptions, without tricks and without inventions such as “alternative civil service.”
The problem is Benjamin Netanyahu
But he returned to say that the secularists would not respond as he called, because as long as Benjamin Netanyahu was prime minister, that would not happen.
Netanyahu will allow the Haredim to remain in their safe cities, without work, without conscription, and receiving billions from the state.
All on one condition: that they remain loyal to the ruling coalition.
After all, staying in power is the only thing that “the most despicable man in the history of the Jewish people” cares about, he said.
He concluded by saying that he had one good thing to say about Rabbi Yosef: 22 years ago, Sara Netanyahu, the prime minister’s wife, said that unless her husband remained prime minister, “we will move abroad, and the whole country could burn,” adding that Yosef had only threatened to move. abroad, and he has not yet set the Israelis on fire, as Netanyahu did.
Source: Haaretz