A full day after Defense Minister Lieberman presented to Prime Minister Netanyahu his recommendations which were crystallized in his office on the issue of army deferment and establishing the status of Torah students, these recommendations were finally publicized. The basic recommendations were prepared by a committee of professionals in the Defense Department and constituted the final memo of a government legal proposal which is expected to be certified in a second and third reading in the Knesset before the summer recess.
The chareidi parties declared that they will not allow any impairment to the status of a yeshiva student, and expressed their pain that in spite of all the discussions that took place on the subject, there is still no understanding and recognition on the part of the authorities regarding the supreme value of the Torah study of yeshiva students.
In a joint announcement publicized this past Monday by the UTJ, it was stated that "after the members of this party have studied and tested the recommendations of the proposed bill and see exactly what it represents, they will present their decisions in full before the Torah leadership."
