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Nov 4, 2020
the fiction of the necessary draft law
The news is reporting that the Supreme court has decided to not grant the government any further extensions to prepare a new law to replace the previous draft law for the yeshiva bochurim.
This means that the current law will expire in 3 months - the status of "toratam umanutam" - their torah learning is their craft - will be revoked. At that point, if no new law has been drafted and passed by then, all yeshiva bochurim not going to the army will officially be AWOL and potentially could be arrested.
I am not sure if this is a big deal or not. From recent chatter by the MKs it has sounded like a new law is pretty close to ready, but is being held up by politics. My assumption is that a new draft law will get passed at the last minute. So anyone looking forward to seeing the chaos of no draft law and seeing images and video of army and police going into yeshivas and dragging out hundreds of young men, should probably make other plans. As they say, it ain't gonna happen.
That being said, if they somehow don't pass a new law before February, I still don't think we will get too much excitement from this. The government hasnt been able to control illegal weddings of 100 people, illegal shuls of 50-100 people, the mass protests on Balfour, simchas beis hashoevas, and other events. Does anyone really expect them to send the troops into the yeshivas and try to arrest and forcibly draft tens of thousands of yeshiva students?
the Haredi parties should just throw their hands up. Call their bluff. Let the law expire and say, now let's see what you do about it. Nothing is going to happen because there is nothing that can happen. There might be a few isolated incidents of the army/police trying to give the impression of enforcement, but for the most part people will be left alone.
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While I understand your suggestion to call their bluff, I sincerely hope they don't take that approach. The rule of law only works because people play the game and decide to abide by the laws. Enforcement and police alone is never enough unless it's extremely heavy handed. If as a policy, society (as opposed to individuals) begin rejecting laws they don't like, that would result in a path to anarchy...
ReplyDeleteI think after covid (we are really still in covid, not quite after yet), we have seen that this is the reality more than ever before. Some communities get to decide which laws they are willing to keep and which not, and the government cant do all that much about it. some token fines (they cant even now increase the fines for more deterrence due to opposition from the representatives of those communities), some token arrests, and that's it
ReplyDeleteAny law passed will be thrown out by the Supreme Court on grounds that charedim shouldn't be treated differently than other citizens. And while I'm usually no fan of the Court's overreach, they do have a point there.
ReplyDeleteI think the charedi leadership wants the exemption because without it, more bochrim who want to get out of the system will have an easier excuse for just enlisting.
I do agree. the draft law keeps the boys in yeshiva because they cant do anything without first going to the army which they are taught to not want to do. Additionally, it keeps UTJ (much more than Shas) in business. Without it, there is little need for UTJ in the Knesset.
DeleteGood point.
Delete"Bayamim hahaym ... ish hayashar b'aynav yaaseh."
ReplyDeleteWould the new law also take away all the benefits that the lads get while they are in kollel if they are meant to be in the army? ie, even if they are not arrested, will their funds get cut-off?
ReplyDelete