At this time, it appears that there will be three core issues
which will be used to attack the chareidi community of Israel
in the next government: drafting yeshiva students ("the
universal obligation for national service"), the imposition
of secular studies in the chareidi educational system and
setting up a national constitution. There will certainly be
other issues, but these are the largest issues that we see as
potential threats to our very existence as religious Jews and
as a religious community in Israel.
Drafting yeshiva students has become something of a personal
crusade of the Prime Minister-elect. Barak himself introduced
a law in the last Knesset to force the draft of yeshiva
students (though as Chief of Staff he defended the
traditional exemption). Since then he has backtracked
somewhat, saying, "I intend to fulfill my promise to draft
yeshiva bochurim, but I will attempt to do so via
consultations and not through [coercive] legislation."
We do not defend "draft dodgers" who do not truly learn Torah
but pretend to do so in order to avoid army service.
Certainly it would be better for them to truly learn, but if
not, they have no right to avoid their legal obligation and
thereby threaten the vast majority who really study Torah
intensively and work much harder than any other group of
their age.
The right and obligation to study Torah is not dependent on
the leave of the Knesset or the Israeli government. This is
an issue that defines our life and a threat to Torah study is
a threat to our very existence. We cannot tolerate any
significant compromise.
The same is true for any proposal to impose secular studies
in our educational system at younger ages. We have always
insisted on absolute control of our curriculum, and see it as
vital. In fact, the graduates of our educational system are
intellectually developed and fully mature, and their raw
analytical and problem-solving abilities are better than
those of the general Israeli system's graduates. Moreover
their ethical and moral sensitivity is also developed, in
contrast to the secular educational system. The technical
skills that our graduates lack that graduates of the secular
system have, are much easier to make up than the moral
training that the secular graduates are missing. There is no
room and no reason to compromise on this issue either, and it
too is one in which we cannot tolerate any weakening of the
status quo that has prevailed for thousands of years, in
which we have exclusive control of our educational system.
A constitution for the State of Israel has been the goal of
legal experts for the past fifty years. It is patently a
means to limit the power of the Knesset by setting bounds to
the laws that it may pass. In recent years it has been the
rallying cry of those who want to limit the power of the
religious parties in the Knesset, since it tips the balance
of power away from the political arena, in which the
religious community has influence, towards the legal system
and especially the High Court which would interpret the
constitution, in which the influence of the religious
community is close to non-existent.
The Knesset is the most democratic institution in the State
of Israel, and the attempt to transfer power from it to the
High Court is an anti-democratic move. Many thoughtful non-
religious leaders recognize the dangers in passage of
constitutional law that does not have a broad consensus of
support, and it is to be hoped that Barak and the new
government will ensure that the large religious minority of
the country is not alienated from the institutions of the
State of Israel by power plays instigated by other, anti-
religious minorities.
