The elections are over. Israeli parliamentary elections do not have a winner and a loser like personal elections in many other countries. Voters choose a party, not a person, in Israel, making the entire process less personal. The chareidi community faces some very difficult political issues.
Clearly, UTJ was successful. They increased their votes by almost a third (from about 147,000 to about 196,000) in four years, and their representation went up even more: from 5 seats to 7 seats. UTJ will have a larger parliamentary delegation than ever before.
On the other hand, there is a strong movement to draft yeshiva bochurim. Generally referred to as "sharing the burden" this is one of the major planks of the platform of the Yesh Atid party of Yair Lapid, that came from nowhere to be the second largest party. How this will translate into public policy is totally unknown at the present, but Yesh Atid seems certain to be in the next government.
Drafting yeshiva bochurim generally is a red-line issue for the chareidi community. There is no question that thousands of yeshiva bochurim will choose jail over army service, because that is what the rabbonim will recommend.
The only realistic goal that such a politician may have hope of achieving is to reduce state support for Torah schools. After the slow but steady cuts that Torah institutions have been suffering for many years, this is less of a threat than it once was.
No one in the Torah community sees any room for negotiation over this. Nonetheless, fear for how this issue will be handled was at the heart of the tension in the yeshiva community over the past few months.
It is hard to understand what secular politicians hope to accomplish from pressing this - aside from getting themselves elected since there are many voters who support these efforts, perhaps out of the false belief that most yeshiva bochurim would serve if forced. It may be that the political pressure will cease now that the public calls have served to get certain politicians elected.
Our prayers are for a speedy resolution.
