-- Ofer Vinter

Vinter has been a bit of an unknown and enigma and I have seen much assumed about him and those assumptions have made him well liked, including in the more right wing part of the Haredi community... Vinter is going on the attack here as he camppaigns for the upcoming elections... we'lll see what the fallout is for going ont he attack against the Haredi representatives, even if what he is saying is true (and it is, obviously)

We have seen in some previous elections attempts by new political formations in the Haredi community. A new party will form and run in the elections and the traditional Haredi parties will push hard against them leading to combinations of social threats against the people behind the new party along with pressure to drop out so as to not waste votes and to not take away votes from the traditional parties. In the past, with just a small number of semi-recent exception, the new parties do not even make it to the finish line and drop out well before the elections. TOV and DERECH were the exceptions that I can think of offhand and they continued to run all the way to the end (and even won some mandates) in municipal elections but not in national elections, and there was a Hared women's party that ran to the end of but ended up very weak after a tough campaign against them and beyond their actual existence did not really accomplish anything significant with their run achieving a very small pool of votes.

There has been talk in recent monthsof several new Haredi parties being formed. I saw one that would compete directly with Shas being formed by a Rav Abergil. I am aware of another that seemed to me to be a yeshivish anglo (or maybe part anglo) party, though I havent heard anything about them recently. I am hearing of another party being formed by groups like Rav Betzalel Cohen and others he is working with. We'll see what comes of all these and if they can withstand the pressure that will surely be levied on them. These are the traditional formations of parties and what normally happens to them as the elections approach.

There is a new campaign out there right now an dit is different than the traditional.

Instead of forming a new party and trying to garner support and withstand the pressures that are certainly coming, Motti Leitner, a municipal politician from Bet Shemesh (from the DERECH parrty) is now running  a 2 million shekel campaign for the upcoming elections. He formed a faction, called "HaTzibbur Hacharedi"  - the Haredi Public, and instead of campaigning for this as a party looking for support, he is campaigning right now to push the traditional Haredi parties to take him in as a representative of his facton. According to the current campaign, UTJ and Shas are both made up of various factions, and Hatzibbus Hacharedi would simply be another faction in the umbrella and would be given a specific slot on whichever list accepts him to represent his faction. His campaign is not seeming to target UTJ or Shas specifically but I think naturally it would be more in line with UTJ, though practically I think Shas might have a higher chance of adopting him (not that they will but that the chances are higher in my opinion).

Leitner's campaign is pointing out that yeshiva bochurim have become targets, the honor of Torah has been trampled, families are being crushed under financial burdens. These are traditional Haredi issues and technically exactly what the traditional Haredi parties supposedly deal with... so why is this new faction necessary? They say new blood needs to be infused into the traditional parties, more representation of the younger generation.

source: i24 News

Interestingly, DERECH, the party Leitner heads in Bet Shemesh, did not run a municipal campaign on traditional Haredi issues but seemed to represent the community called the "modern Haredim" which are young couples ansd families many of whom work and are not learning in yeshivas and have concerns other than things like the traditional concern of Haredi draft and money for yeshivas and the like, so I find it interesting that they are moving away from that and trying to bring the traditional campaigns to the younger crowd they claim to represent. I look forward to seeing how this develops..

I assume this law will be shot down by the Supreme Court pretty quickly. I do not see how you can pass a law to exempt some people from arrest for the same crime that other people are being arrested for at the same time. 

I do not know why they did not propose an easy solution of freezing arrests of all deserters for the same period. That would provide equal application and would perhaps give it more of a chance of sticking (though I am no legal expert so may be entirely wrong about that). 

On Kol BeRama radio Rav Ahron Butbol was asked a quesion about this type of behavior.

A listener asked if it is ok to register for Likud membership so as to support a specific candidate who is religious in his candidacy for a slot on the Likud list. the questioner mentioned that until now he has refused to do so so as to avoid strengthening a secular political party, but ont he other hand perhaps continuing to refuse actually leaves the field open to anti-religious elements and leaves it open to the opposite of what he wants - he wants the Likud to get closer to more religious positions, but leaving it because it isnt a religious party (at least officially) leaves it to be more influenced by anti-religious...

Rav Butbol said that on election day voting for a secular party is a problem because that strengthens a secular party, but the request here is not to actually vote for the Likud but to register so as to vote in the primaries and support a religious candidate. It is problematic to do so because the Haredi public is committed and obligated to vote for the Haredi and religious parties. However, registering for internal elections is a tool to influence the identities of their representatives and is not necessarily considered supporting the platform of the party.

Rav Butbol points out there were three Likud MKs who torpedoed the progress of the Draft law. The PM could not do anything about it. They were elected to Likud slots in the Likud primaries. If the public with a connection to tradition would be more involved in the internal elections in the Likud, candidates who keep tradition and religious values can be elected and the Likud could be turned into a party that protects the Torah world more. 

Before continuing I would note that MKs Edelstein and Ilouz are both religious and still chose to oppose the law that was being presented.

To conclude, Rav Butbol paskened that if the candidate is recognized as a good decent person with a strong and true connection to religion and tradition, there is a strong reason to register to help him be elected. This would not be considered "assisting a chilul hashem" but the exact opposite - strengthening the Torah positions in other political strongholds.

  -- MK Yaakov Asher (UTJ)

  -- MK Yinon Azulai (Shas), directing his ire at the team of the Attorney General and went on to say that the aggressive arrests and enforcement are not achieving their goals but are creating the opposite effect of locking the Haredi community down even more as they circle the wagons to oppose it and it raises the antagonism in the Haredi community towards the State and the IDF...

He is right, but it takes two to tango. The reps of the Haredi community have also not been flexible. They also need to look at what is happening, recognize the gravity of the moment, and be flexible. Maybe if both sides show a little bit of flexibility perhaps we can come to a reasonable resolution.

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  -- MK Ytzchak Goldknopf, in advance of the Haredi car protest

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I am in favor of their right to protest. They have the same right to protest as everyone else in Israel, even if their subject of protest is one other people do not like or agree with. That should not need to be said. 

Their right to protest does not include violence or civil disobedience (even if it is an effective means of protest) just like nobody else has the right to protest like that, and protests are supposed to be coordinated with the police for permits, especially if disrupting the flow of traffic is involved. This too should not need to be said. 

Unlike many of the other Haredi protests we have seen recently, from what I understand the protest scheduled for this afternoon has been somewhat coordinated with the police and they have a permit for it (though I think not for shutting down roads, maybe I am wrong). Like the Gur protest the other day near the army prison, which was coordinated with permits, I would expect today's protest to be a bother and nuisance to the general public but relatively peaceful and uneventful.

All that being said, every time I see someone criticizing any of the Haredi protests or any aspect of them, supporters of the protests start screaming "but Kaplan!..." - Kaplan blocked roads, Kaplan got violent, police didnt touch the Kaplan protestors.... whether true or not, whether accurate or not, immediately they run to compare their protests to Kaplan.

I am not sure that is a great strategy. The Kaplan protestors have become among the most (excluding by their supporters obviously) divisive and hated groups around Israel - completely on the Right but also well into the center and into the light Left. 

The Haredim are not so well liked right now either out in the general public, but I am not sure they want to be compared to Kaplan and make themselves really hated by so many by demanding to be treated like Kaplan...

Shortly after that notice, another notice hit the news that the avreich was released.

This was after another arrest attempt Friday morning that was thwarted by the Peleg system for dealing with these arrests by sending mobs out.

I don't get it. If they are just going to let these guys go anyway once the Peleg or Eida make their threats or send out their crowds, why are they arresting these people at all? They look extremely weak in light of how frequently they are backing down to threats. if they are just going to release them anyway, don't even bother arresting them. 

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Bennett said, "If I will be elected Prime Minister, I will shut down all the Haredi parties' school chains - (Personally (me, not Bennett) I think it is a problem that political parties are running schoool systems, but that's the way it is, now back to Bennett) Under our noses an independent Haredi anti-Zionist state has been established within Israel and we are funding it from our pockets. In the next government we will move to fix an historical error that allowed for the creation of seperate states. This is the rule: not stately (there is no great definition for mamlachti) - not on our dime...."

I dont know if he is serious or not about this. Maybe it is just trying to differentiate himself from others and bring in votes. Even if Bennett was serious about this, I doubt he would be able to do this, even if today's Opposition wins and he figures out a way to get the other parties (Eisenkot and Lieberman specifically) to support him for PM ... 60 or 70 years ago the Haredi school systems were tiny. Today they are massive. 

Even if he wins, nobody is forecasting a landslide that would give him a powerful government. Even if you trust the polls that forecast victory for the Opposition and defeat for today's Coalition parties, it will be another weak government (because it will be narrow) that will probably not last long and will not get anything major done. This is something major that will be a big fight and garner massive opposition and won't be so easy to accomplish.

I think this can be taken with a grain of salt

Last night there were protests and riots in and outside of Bet Shemesh. Peleg Yerushalmi people found out or heard that a yeshiva bochur in the area had been arrested, or maybe detained, for being a "deserter" from the IDF. They quickly mobilized and wreaked havoc in the area, including breaking into the police station where the detainee was supposedly being held, until they were eventually pushed out.

I'm honestly fascinated by the protests that happen when a yeshiva bochur is arrested/detained, and specifically by their level of organization.. 

They seem to have enough people all over the place to get a crowd quickly at the site of the arrest. They get the word out quickly and people show up immediately.

They don't have weapons but the police usually have no control and can't defend themselves against these protesters with the protesters often creating so much havoc that the police often releases the detainee or just gives up and leaves the area if they have not already gotten their guy. And like last night, they at times even break into the police station and physically free them from the clutches of the police. 

No consequences, nobody really gets into any trouble, anyone arrested for this behavior seems to be released fairly quickly.

I'm amazed and fascinated.

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This photo of Captain (Reserves) Yehuda Weitzman heading out to return back to his military base in Lebanon bearing a sefer torah (written in memory of two brothers, Hillel and Yagel Yaniv, two brothers who were killed in a terrorist attack in Hawara) alongside his military gear, captured the hearts of the masses online...

As a follow up to this picture, Goldberg captured another brilliant shot at the Central Bus Station...

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the video got passed around and went somewhat viral and it created quite a stir with different personalities such as Aryeh Deri and Aryeh Erlich, among others, getting involved, donating money and spekaing out against what happened and calling on people to donate..

Inbar Twizer, the journalist who posted the video, later defended herslef, to the onslaught of attacks against because of her video, saying that her husnad had just returned from funerals of six of his friends in miluim who had fallen in battle in Lebanon, and all of them were religious, and these 18 year olds knocked on the door and we had a pleasant conversation  in which we asked them why they have not inducted into the army. If anyone thinks we shamed them, we can agree about one thing - that not inducting into the army at this time - that is definitely something to be ashamed of.

Each and every person has the right to decide to whom to give charity. Nobody is obligated to give to whoever knocks at the door, and if you dont approve of the lifestyle of someone asking for tzedaka, feel free to not donate.

That being said, while you can choose to donate tzedaka or not donate tzedaka to any given person r organization, there is no need to treat people disrespectfully. There is a time and a place for those discussions. Go arrange a meeting between representatives of the various communities and aks the questions and have your discussions. Set up one on one meetings with average young and old haredim and ask your questions about why they do this or that. You should not treat people disrespectfully. Two young men coming to the door for one purpose do not need to be harassed like that and then shamed online. She could have asked them if they serve in the army and upon hearing no she could have chosen to not donate and send them on their way without causing a big stir. 

  -- Rav Yitzchak Yosef, former Chief Rabbi of Israel

  -- MK Meir Porush (UTJ)

Porush can always be counted on for putting on a good show in Knesset....

I have no problem with the content. I believe in the marketplace of ideas. They can argue their perspective...

I am just wondering if all these bnei chutz laaretz keep two days of yom tov

The rabbonim say that the gedolei yisrael consider it a breach in the guidelines of tzniyus for a woman to drive a car. They never even imagined that the women would go down so many levels backwards and be drivers for public transportation.

The truth is, they say, that even for gentile women it is inappropriate to be such drivers, and the best of them would not lower themselves to take such lowly work, and for sure, how much more so, Haredi women shouldn't. 

They then put out a call for those Haredi women who have already been susceptible and been seduced to take this lowly work to resign immediately and look for jobs more in line with the guidelines of tzniyus and halacha..

source: Behadrei

I can udnerstand them being against Haredi women drivers. They, the rabbis of the more extreme Haredi groups, always were, and driving a bus is much more out there than driving your own car, so it makes sense they would oppose it strongly.

But why is driving a bus such a lowly position? Talk aboutt zniyus and what is or isnt appropriate for a Haredi woman, but why put down all bus drivers and call it such degrading work?

As the expression goes,  .כל עבודה מכבדת את בעליה  - all work dignifies the person doing it. No matter the job, no matter the work, if the person does it with dignity and responsiblity and honesty, it is a dignified work to be done. No need to put down all bus drivers.

What does going on the attack mean?

In my opinion, going on the attack means not just complaining about the campaign while also complaining that "they should first draft all the Arabs and the come to us" or "there are more draft dodgers in Tel Aviv, deal with them first", or other similar kvetching I have heard.. Rather, do something about it. 

What is there to do about it? Go to the Supreme Court with a suit against the government (and/or the Attorney General and/or whoever else might be relevant)  to force them to draft the Arabs and not just ignore them. Sue the government et al to go after the draft dodgers in a more serious manner. Sue the government to look at the Hesder programs to determine if they are also not sharing the burden equally considering the shorter army service they do. Sue the government for any other shortages or discrepancies in service by any other minority population.

Will that upset lots of people? Sure. That would be the point, but it would also ponit out publicly the unfairness, from the Haredi perspective, in goign only after the Haredim.

Stop complaning and do something about it.

Well, they might finally be doing something about it.

Some Haredi organization named Emes L'Yaakov is doing just that. They have petitioned the Ministry of Defense  and other relevant parties with a demand to stop the illegal discrimination between different groups that do not get drafted to the army. This petition of the Ministry of Defense is a leadup to filing a petition with the courts. 

The petition claims that while yeshiva students who do not get drafted have been slapped with financial sanctions and limitations losing subsidies and grants, while other students who did not induct into the army continue to enjoy their personal benefits uninterrupted. Additionally, Haredi educational institutions have been losing funding  for students who were not drafted while Universities and the like do not get docked for students who did not enlist.

The petition also complains about the Dati Leumi community saying they draft for less time but have had no sanctions placed on them and on their institutions. Anyone not drafting equally should get their funding cut proportionally.

And if the government does not draft other minorities, they should impose similar sanctions on those communities similar to sanctions being imposed on the Haredi community.

the petition says that if immediate action is not taken, they will go to the Supreme Court 

source: Kol Rega

I can see this backfiring, as people get even more upset with the Haredim over this attack, but it would really bring the issue to the forefront and not leave it as just a Haredi issue. 

I also think it does not go far enough, but maybe it is good as a first step with a plan to  raise the pressure further down the road. They should be suing for discrimination and selective enforcement. Sue the government to draft the Arabs. Sue the government to go after draft dodgers in a more hard handed manner. Sue the government to cancel the inequal hesder arrangement. 

If they would be wildly successful, it could also backfire because then everyone is equally punished and equally drafted so they have nothing left to complain about, and forcing them use more enforcement will end up with more enforcement against them too. But they would have to be wildly sucecssful for that to happen which honestly seems unlikely.