We do not need many sources to know what goes on in the Israeli army. Suffice us to hear from the top men of the Hesder institutions of the National Religious camp in order to understand how the army treats those young idealists who volunteer to serve their country with a staunch determination to keep the mitzvos, only to face opacity of their officers, with a harsh blow to the values in which they believe and their need to struggle against phenomena of which no one warned them in advance.
And now they come to convince chareidim that the army is prepared to accept them to its ranks and to assure them that they will emerge the same chareidim as they entered. We have already written in this column about the value of such promises.
Nevertheless, it is worthwhile to hear what someone has to say from the 'inside' who knows far better than us how the army relates to such chareidim who are prepared to reside under its protection.
So it is interesting to note what Rabbi Yitzchak Bar Chaim, who is considered the founder of the various chareidi courses in the army and serves as the rabbi of the 'Netzach Yisrael' organization and who is responsible for guiding inductees in the army who consider themselves chareidi. What does he advise a man who presented himself as a chareidi father whose son decided to join the army?
He called Rabbi Bar Chaim to ask to which branch of the army his son should apply. A tape of the conversation was aired on the media where the rabbi is heard downplaying all possibilities in the IDF, namely: "Givati is negative, Chaitz is negative." He claims that all the so called chareidi units in the army are dangerous. They seem prestigious but we must consider in which unit a chareidi has the best chance to emerge religious. "I don't want to badmouth those units and tell how many religious boys emerge the same as they entered in the end."
He cannot find good words to say about Netzach Yehuda soldiers either. Most of them carry smart phones and for sure there are mehalelei Shabbos on the sly in their midst, including other severe halachic infractions (which he enumerates on the tape but in deference to the honor of the readers, we will not enumerate here). "I cannot promise that one who emerges will be a ben Torah."
And if this is what the creator of such chareidi units says, the one who is responsible for guiding all chareidi units, what can those who encourage young chareidim say about enlisting and destroying the chareidi world through army service?
Ha'aretz Wants Us to Pay Them to Call Hamas Freedom Fighters
Two weeks ago, a group calling itself "The Press Organization," together with a committee from Ha'aretz, petitioned the High Court demanding the government rescind its decision to halt economic connection with the paper.
The reason behind the government decision was the words of the publisher of Ha'aretz, Amos Shocken, said at a conference in London where he referred to Hamas murderers as "Freedom Fighters" and stood among others who demanded sanctions against Israel because of its activities in Gaza.
Just so that we understand the tremendous damage which this anti-Jewish Israeli paper caused to Jews throughout the world, here is an example of what an American news commentator, Candace Owens, known for her anti-Semitic views and promoter of the conspiracy theories, asserted in an interview to the American press, claiming, "Israel is carrying out ethnic purification in Gaza, as witnessed by an Israeli newspaper, Ha'aretz admitting to the same." And also, "I receive my information from an Israeli paper to which I am subscribed, Ha'aretz, who protest this and refer to it as an ethnic purification . And if Israeli papers state this, why shouldn't papers in the West have the courage to call this by the same name?"
And this columnist went on to say, "This is clearly not antisemitism. What reason in the world does Ha'aretz, an Israeli newspaper, have cause to be anti-Semitic, and to seek the ruination of Jewry? "
Incidentally, the American organization "To halt Anti-Semitiam" labeled Candace Owens as "the Antisemite of the Year."