Netanyahu: No IDF deferment for Yeshiva students
Prime Minister goes back on previous decision to extend Tal Law, one day after Ehud Barak calls for a one-year extension on the law and alternate national service for those who do not serve.
By Barak Ravid, Ophir Bar-Zohar and Jonathan Lis Tags: IDF Benjamin Netanyahu Ehud BarakPrime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced Wednesday that he will not support extending a law which allows full-time yeshiva students to defer military service for another five years, two days after he said he said he sought to extend it.
Netanyahu, who landed in Holland on Wednesday, said that he will discuss the decision with his coalition and will push for government approval.
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Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. |
| Photo by: Emil Salman |
The announcement came one day after Defense Minister Ehud Barak expressed his support for a one-year extension of what is known as the Tal Law.
Barak, who spoke on Monday during a West Bank tour with GOC Central Command Maj. Gen. Avi Mizrahi and other officers near Ramallah, said that the extension would give the government a chance to come up with a new solution.
“The Tal Law was passed ten years ago and extended five years ago. According to Barak, the law “has failed to live up to our expectations of it. We should extend it for another year, in which the problem can be sorted out.”
During the tour, Barak also emphasized that the burden of Israel’s security needs should be shared by everyone, and that those who are not drafted should be "compelled to serve the community through national service."
Barak further called for raising the pay for conscripts, specifically that of combatants.
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Ben Gurion did what he thought was right but in the end was a wrong choice. He should have realized the survivors of the Holocaust had nowhere to go and they should not have been given a free pass which was anti-Zionistic in the first place. If you do nor want to defend your country get the hell out. They should not get stipends either as this taxes those who work and they need to get a job. After all how any Rabbis does one really need. The bible didn't exempt students did it
Everyone has an equal duty to serve and defend Israel, even yeshiva students. If they choose to study Torah after the army, that's fine. God will still be there.
It's about time that the government and country understands reality, even the religious must serve. Without Israel, there will be no yeshivot. God will be there after
The IDF is simply not prepared yet to enlist many Haredim. You can blame Barak for being unprepared, but the fact remains. Extension for a short time with CERTAIN non-extension will also be beneficial, because it will induce many Haredi boys to leave the country in order to study elsewhere, such as in the US. They will get "student visas", then marry American Haredi girls, and stay there. This way you reduce Haredi population and their welfare payments in Israel.
He's just a PR spokesman not a PM.
DRAFT DODGING in the current Israeli situation of ARAB DECLARED SEMI-WARFARE is a traitorous act which Israel should treat as an equivalent to IRANt's Nuclear program..."not acceptable or we go to war" Israel needs to declare IDF dodgers to be "persona non grata", thrown in jail, or made to work in a program benefitting the state...or else expulsion! why accept a parasitic group who undermines Israeli security.??? unnecessary!
Time to correct Ben-Gurion's mistake that was made when the state was established to indefinitely defer the army service of a few hundred Yeshiva students.
How fascinating! Netanyahu suddenly changes colors like a chameleon and does a flip-flop on his previous decision to extend the Tal-law yet again - once he's out of the country and out of - albeit only temporary - reach of his certainly livid coalition-partners. Of course, earning brownie-points from Europe is also high on his agenda; P.R. is the man's favorite game.