..enforcing Haredi draft (Jpost Oct28)

That some religiously observant Jews do not feel any responsibility to defend the Jewish state or Jewish lives, including their own, is a disgrace, a ‘hillul Hashem’. It brings religion into contempt and weakens the Israeli state. We read elsewhere that in the last two years many of our more productive citizens have left the country. No county can survive when too many of its citizens leave for apparently greener pastures and a large number of those who remain are non-productive. It is time to tackle the problem in an intelligent manner. It is foolish to pass laws that are virtually impossible to enforce. Attempting to arrest and imprison draft evaders is impractical and in any case there is the question of Arab Israeli citizens who are not presently drafted most of whom also do not serve in the IDF. There is a simple solution if only our Prime minister had the guts to promote it. There are numerous benefits that our benevolent state bestows on its citizens, such as child allowances, subsidized child care and subsidized housing. All of these financial benefits could be limited to those who participate in supporting the state, either by having served in the IDF or in some other form of national service. Naturally this would be violently opposed by the Haredi establishment, and passing such regulations could result in some parties leaving the coalition. Netanyahu has in the past been willing to fight against an American president who was more willing to appease Iran than support Israel. He was also willing to fight against another American president who wanted him to refrain from invading Gaze. It remains to be seen if Netanyahu has the intestinal fortitude to risk his coalition to fight for what is right and fair to the many young, and not so young, men who have fought willingly in the IDF, and now serve multiple terms in the reserves.