I personally do not have a solution to the issue of the Haredi draft. I dont see a need to fight over solutions that obviously wont work, but I also see the need for change of the status quo. Israel is in a different place now. What was will not continue to be.
Since the war began, once it became apparent this would be a long war, I felt that the situation will have to change, people wont be so forgiving about tens of thousands of young men being let out of the draft while others have to serve for so long. While I dont have a solution I do believe this is largely a missed opportunity by Haredi leadership to propose a solution. Instead of proposing a solution they chose to dig in their heels and fight against the drafting of Haredi men with no compromises.
Had they proposed a solution that would have drafted a reasonable number of people from the Haredi community (whether it would be those who don't learn in yeshiva full time or to draft into the religious services portion of the army, to do National Service within the Haredi community, or to establish some sort of medical corp adjacent to the army that Haredim would serve in, etc), I think most of Israel would have been ok with that, in some form or another, and the issue would have been put to rest. They dug their heels in and refused to talk about anything, and now even the above suggestion likely wouldnt be enough - now people just want them int he army, after a nearly 14 months of people serving multiple times in Gaza and Lebanon, families collapsing, fathers of ten being killed in battle, people losing jobs and businesses going under..people by now have had enough.
So to me, this is mostly a missed opportunity of the Haredi leadership.
That being said, I do have two questions, one for each side:
1. For those of you who think it is too late, Haredim have to draft - how do you solve this? Draft them and then what - will they go to the army or will they refuse? Are you going to send in police to arrest the rabbis and thousands of yeshiva students, until they agree to go, which they very well might not? How does this get resolved for the good of Israeli society?
2. For those of you who are against drafting the Haredim (because they don't want to be drafted), how do you explain to the rest of the nation collapsing under the burden of this extended war why tens of thousands of young healthy men are not participating and relieving middle aged men from such long stays on the battlefield? How do you sell the difference why some people (most of the country) can be forced to serve but some people shouldn't be forced to serve?
I have seen people argue incessantly online over the past few months about should they or shouldn't they be drafted, but I haven't seen anyone explain how it could work, in either direction... I would like to hear how a forced draft could work, and I would like to hear how a mass exemption could work. The government will do whatever it finds politically expedient to do, without actually doing whatever it thinks to be morally and practically the right thing. If they pass the law to grant the exemptions, it wont suddenly resolve the arguments in society so I would like to hear ideas how this can be resolved in a way that most people would be ok with.
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