biting the helping hand

UTJ is experiencing another crisis in government right now. It seems that crisis follows crisis for them this past year or so... With the Attorney General stopping the subsidies for day care for anyone who is a candidate for draft but refusing to be drafted, the Haredi parties, especially UTJ, is in crisis. They have demanded PM Netanyahu step in and solve the problem by finding some way to circumvent the Attorney General's decision. Netanyahu has yet to make a statement or step in to intervene.

Finance Minister Betzalel Smotritch penned a letter to the Deputy Attorney General and some others saying basically that he is the Finance Minister and it is his decision to continue the subsidies, their decision to cancel them will destroy the economy, etc. He expressed frustration that he was not consulted before their decision was made, etc etc

Interestingly, the Haredi parties have expressed anger, or maybe frustration, at Smotritch. They say his turning this into a big deal will just make it worse for them and escalate the matter to becoming a constitutional crisis pitting the government against the legal system and it will only make things worse. He might be the only person there trying to help (even if he has ulterior motives, and he likely does), but they get upset at him...

I dont know what their approach should be. They dont really have good options. Smotritch is being a bit disingenuous when he talks about stopping of subsidies wont cause a single Haredi to be drafted. he is right (maybe) but that is not the point of stopping subsidies. The Attorney General does not get involved in trying to draft Haredim - that is a political issue. The Attorney General is saying that continuing to grant these discounts and subsidies to Haredim is illegal considering their status as draft dodgers. According to the position of the attorney General, it does not matter if it will help draft Haredim or not, and that is not the point or what they are trying to do by canceling the subsidies. They are just saying if the Haredim refuse to draft it is illegal to give them these financial benefits.

The only real way to get the subsidies back legally is to pass a law that solves the Haredi draft issue. Once that is done and the Haredi public will no longer legally be considered draft dodgers, they will get their subsidies back. Obviously there is n simple solution for this. If there were, the draft issue would have been resolved long ago...

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