JERUSALEM (VINnews) — Israeli Health and Interior Minister Moshe Arbel (Shas) gave an interview to Channel 12 News on Monday in which he commented on the Draft Law, and claimed that being charedi should not automatically grant a person an exemption from military service.
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“Specifically as someone who served in the army and in the reserves until he entered the Knesset, and as one whose brothers served in the army, one of them becoming an officer in the IDF, I want to say explicitly – being charedi is not a reason to be exempt from military service.”
He also said, “Whoever studies Torah, I expect that in a Jewish state this should not be a criminal offense. The community of Torah students should be respected.”
“At the same time, if a person takes advantage of this exemption and does not study Torah and tries to evade military service by wearing a black kippah – we all together should work to recruit him for adapted military service,” said Arbel.
He added that “I haven’t seen the details of the draft law, but I want to say that a person who is not learning Torah is hitchhiking on the community. We won’t defend him, he has to do army service like any other citizen.”
Last week, MK Moshe Gafni, chairman of the Degel HaTorah faction of the United Torah Judaism Party, clarified that the Draft Law will be brought to a vote at the beginning of the winter session of the Knesset.
“Many people are writing things, most of which have nothing to do with reality, as was the case this week as well,” Gafni told the Yated Ne’eman newspaper when speaking about the Draft Law. “There is an explicit agreement that the law will be submitted at the beginning of the winter session.”
Gafni noted that he told Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu this week “that all publicity about the issue is unnecessary, since the Draft Law is not a political law. There are facts. There are agreements. This practical law will be submitted at the beginning of the winter session of the Knesset.”
האחיכם יבאו למלחמה ואתם תשבו פה
This is really not a joke.
I believe Rav Shach said the same thing.
Brave to speak up.
He’s wrong, the Torah protects not a bunch of kibbutznik hazer eaters
Thirty years ago, if I saw a man with a army uniform or a beard, it was either a Chabadnik or a Sephardi Chareidi. I lived with the latter for more than a decade: They were generally not overly enthusiastic about the army, but accepted that they had to support a family, and having a job meant military service. On the other hand, many Ashkenazi Haredim did not think a Judenstadt dependant on perpetual war (and warrior) making is essential.
““Specifically as someone who served in the army and in the reserves…I want to say explicitly – being charedi is not a reason to be exempt from military service.”
He also said, “…The community of Torah students should be respected.”
“At the same time, if a person takes advantage of this exemption and does not study Torah and tries to evade military service by wearing a black kippah – we all together should work to recruit him for adapted military service,” said Arbel.”
This is shameful and disgusting. Since he has, unfortunately, been in the IDF, the Zionist shmad obviously had its spiritually lethal impact on him.
Losing Torah study is not the main reason that a Jew cannot be in the IDF. The main and far more overriding reason that a Jew cannot join the IDF is that the IDF is a den of heresy, shmad and all three of the cardinal sins for which one must give one’s life rather than violate. Therefore, this parliament member is very wrong, and committed a chilul Hashem by saying this, especially as a “Chareidi”.
We need Moshiach very, very desperately.