Page 2 - Haredi Draft News Today

The attorney general, possibly with good intentions, may have wrecked the idea of a real court deadline with teeth that can get anyone to make hard choices on this fateful issue.

Knesset member Hanoch Milwidsky (Likud) opposes current draft law, not consulted on it before.

Why should some able-bodied young men and women be asked to risk their lives for the collective while other equally able-bodied members of that collective are not asked to do the same?

Haredi party leaders warned that if the bill includes economic sanctions and recruitment quotas, they will leave the government.

The draft, should it pass, would extend the exemption from IDF conscription for haredi (ultra-Orthodox) Jews.

Netanyahu has been rumored to be ready to extend the Haredi exemption from IDF and national service in practice while trying to make some symbolic gesture toward greater service.

"What is the utility of general elections now?" asked Netanyahu. "General election means the end of the war."

Defense Minister Gallant: "If a wide consensus is not achieved, I will not be submitting the conscription law at the behest of the Defense Ministry."

MQG chairman Dr. Eliad Shraga said that without increasing the IDF’s manpower, Israel would be left vulnerable.

A symbolic benefit would also be achieved: the ultra-Orthodox would wear uniforms like their non-haredi counterparts and experience a sense of having “joined” the larger society.