JERUSALEM (VINnews) — Rabbi David Fendel, the head of the Sderot hesder yeshiva, has called on Religious Zionists “not to fall into the trap of those trying to topple the government via the charedi draft issue.”
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In an Arutz Sheva interview, Rabbi Fendel said that “It is so transparent what the goal of the protests and the attorney-general is, and it is not to enlist charedim in the IDF. In the meantime those charedim who want to enlist are being rebuffed, and I know this from several sources. Even the defense minister has no interest in these initiatives.
“The tremendous enterprise of the yeshiva world, which is the largest since Chizkiyahu Hamelech, is one that the state of Israel can be proud of. The fact that the state funds it is a great merit, and chas veshalom that we should relinquish the merit to fund Talmidei Chachamim.
“We will be happy if there will be charedi hesder yeshivos but not now, not with [attorney-general] Miara, not by force and not via religious Zionism. Now is the time for Tefillah, Torah and unity. We won’t let them realize their plan to incite us against one another, we won’t let them topple the government by force.
“It’s clear that it [charedi draft] will happen in the end in all kinds of forms but not in the current situation. We need to know how to respect communities which don’t think like us on every matter. In the end we learn the same R’ Elchonon, the same R’ Chaim, the same Ktzos and the common denominator is huge.”
Asked why the public shouldn’t promote at least the enlistment of those who are not learning, Rabbi Fendel refused to discuss it and said that “They won’t succeed in dividing us and in crushing the amazing unity and harmony which we have in our wish to build a serious world of Torah study. We need to stress in the strongest manner how much respect we have for the charedi community. We would like them to reciprocate in their respect, but that too will come.”
Rabbi Fendel’s yeshiva returned to Sderot three months ago and he described how on Parshat Zachor they danced in the city and “continued the dancing of Simchas Torah” to raise morale in the town. On Simchas Torah yeshiva students succeeded in killing three terrorists and Rabbi Fendel added that “Baruch Hashem, the days when yeshiva students didn’t know how to defend themselves are over.”
Glad he spoke up. They only wish to topple Bibi and they’re using the draft and hostages as an excuse. Lapid and his leftists are traitors, liars and bomb throwers who refuse to accept the peoples’ votes.
Schumer speech was the go ahead signal. It’s so obvious.
There are several points that are being conflated here. There are most definitely those whose main goal is to bring down the government, and will use any issue – judicial reform, hostages, the Chareidi draft – to further that goal. However, the fact that some are misusing an issue due to an ulterior motive does not mean it’s not an issue, and does not mean that all pushing that issue have an ulterior motive. The Chareidi draft issue is one that many Israelis from across the spectrum feel strongly about, especially in light of the massive sacrifices other segments of Israeli society have had to make on account of this war. Dismissing all such legitimate concerns as being driven by a desire to bring down the government only is both false and counterproductive.
More on what he states which is absolutely true “It is so transparent what the goal of the protests and the attorney-general is, and it is not to enlist charedim in the IDF. In the meantime those charedim who want to enlist are being rebuffed, and I know this from several sources. Even the defense minister has no interest in these initiatives.”
For those who claim that there will be no haredi enlistment read this, I agree with everything he has to say:
It’s clear that it [charedi draft] will happen in the end in all kinds of forms but not in the current situation. We need to know how to respect communities which don’t think like us on every matter. In the end we learn the same R’ Elchonon, the same R’ Chaim, the same Ktzos and the common denominator is huge.