Dear friends, have you gone mad? Have you lost your minds? Are youliving in another country? On another planet?
Whoever’s bright idea it was to draft the haredim is going to bring down acalamity on the state of Israel.
True, their draft-dodging is annoying. If you serve in the IDF, if youare asked to risk your life in Lebanon, if you have to abandon your familyand your job every year to do your reserve duty stint — how could you notget annoyed at the thought of thousands of these able-bodied young menwho are sitting in the comfort of their homes? Especially when you seethem raring for a fight on Bar-Ilan street, or climbing atop excavationsin order to beat up the archeologists. What great fighting shape!
True, these shirkers are living at our expense. You, whofaithfully fulfill your reserve duty every year, are supportingwith your taxes an ever-growing camp of professional parasites.
True, this arrangement gives the rabbis total control over tens ofthousands of those haredi youths, since only rabbis are authorized toconfirm that their religious study is their occupation, and that theyare therefore exempt from serving in the IDF and have the right tolive at our expense.
True, this institutionalized evasion hurts the citizens’ equality beforethe law. When the Supreme Court abstains from stating so explicitly,then, it, too, is shirking its duty.
True, there is no more popular subject in the country than the demand fortheir draft. (During my time as a Knesset member, aftermaking several speeches on unpopular subjects, such as the rights ofthe Palestinians, which made me into an object of hate, I wouldsometimes feel the need to say something popular. I knew thatif I were to bring up the demand for the draft of the Yeshivastudents, I would gain general sympathy. It seems that Ehud Barakhas come to the same conclusion.)
All of this is true and well known.
But this truth is dwarfed by the serious danger involved in implementingthis demand. Those who demand an all-inclusive draft envision in theirminds innocent Yeshiva youths, in the tradition of Bialik’s “HaMatmid,”haredim who are detached from worldly affairs. But Judaism has undergonea mutation in the last thirty years. (Check out Safi Rakhlevsky’s book”The Messiah’s Donkey.”) The distinction between the religiousnationalists and the haredim is rapidly disappearing. The nationalistsare growing steadily more orthodox, and the orthodox aregrowing steadily more nationalistic. Both are now members of theextremist-messianic-nationalistic-religious cult, with the settlerrabbis acting as their spearhead. This is a revolutionary movement,one which endangers not only our security and our chances for peace,but also our very system of democracy in Israel itself.
This cult is taking over the IDF in a pincer movement.
One pincer arm consists of the Hesder-Yeshivot, military units entirelyunder the authority of the rabbis. Add to these the armedsettlements, which are, themselves, military units. (Irony offate: Ben-Gurion dismantled the Palmach out of concern that it couldbecome a left-wing party-controlled unit, and now the IDF hasspawned much more dangerous party-driven units.)
The second pincer arm comes from within the general army. This is aresult of some sort of natural selection. The more the army is put to useas an occupation police force against the Palestinians, and as amilitary guard to the settlements, the less it attracts secular andpeace-loving youth to its long-term service, and the more it attractsreligious-nationalist-extremists. Within the religious-nationalistmovement, there is a clear and calculated design to take control ofcommand ranks within the IDF.
The results are clearly visible — literally speaking. In every gatheringof the lower and middle ranks of the commissioned officers, the largenumber of kippah-wearers is already nearing the 50% mark. There areplaces where the distinctions between officers and settlers are completelyobliterated. Effi Eytam, a new Major-General, the religious settlerwhose name was tied to some of the atrocities of the intifada, is apioneer of this design at the highest level.
This is a very real danger, to the IDF in particular and to Israel’sdemocracy in general. This danger will sharply increase with the additionof tens of thousands of haredi draftees (who would demand to serve inspecial units and in special camps, where female soldiers would not beallowed, but where they would have glatt-kosher kitchens, mikvas andsynagogues). It goes without saying that at these units the rabbis wouldcarry absolute authority, much like the “Political Commissars” of theRed Army. Is this what we want?
A portion of the Yeshiva students would undoubtedly “lose their way,” astheir rabbis fear, should they come at all in contact with secularsoldiers. But the remainder would be assimilated among the messianicextremists, thus adding tremendous strength to the movement which isstriving to take over the army from the inside.
God forbid!