1.
On Monday this week, the Knesset corridors were pretty deserted. Small construction sites sprang up on the various floors ("renovations here"). A holiday atmosphere.
And in the Foreign Affairs and Security Committee room, a celebration without a groom.
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In the air-conditioned room, a discussion titled: 'Report of Major General Eliezer Shkedi.'.
From the "consort" side - the Haredi public - MK Yaakov Asher from Delg Hatorah, MK Yinon Azoulay and Avraham Bezalel from Shas, and Minister Yitzhak Goldknopf from Agudat Yisrael arrived.
It began with a loud protest that the general himself chose not to participate in the discussion. "He is staying away from politicians," someone explained. He was represented by Brigadier General Shai Taib, head of the IDF's Planning and Personnel Management Brigade, the officer who was attacked by extremists when he arrived at Rabbi David Leibel's home in Bnei Brak.
""The committee is unnecessary, the report is nothing," shouted MK Meir Cohen of Mish Atid.
The chairman of the committee, MK Yuli Edelstein, was quick to protest: "Want to stay with zero Haredi recruitment, but are you very right? No problem." He wanted to say: Leave the righteous comments behind, we are trying to advance a critical issue here.
It didn't help.
""Shakdi is my friend, I respect him, I respected his wish not to meet with politicians to prepare the report, but there is a limit. They are presenting a document of his here, and he is not here?" wondered MK Eliezer Stern, from Mis Atid.
But Edelstein, "still naive," believes that a law can be advanced in his committee - "and that Stern will read the report himself.".
""Well, obviously, when the Minister of Defense issues orders, while we are sitting here talking, what do you want?" - MK Tali Gottlieb from the Likud wondered this very significant question. For the important committee in the Knesset is sitting, trying to advance a conscription law, and above it the IDF is sending orders to Haredi homes and destroying any attempt to bridge the gaps.
This is exactly the feeling of frustration that Edelstein feels, who keeps saying: "I'm still naive." Still believes that it's possible.
Is it possible?
2.
But that wasn't the only funny part.
""On October 8th, we received thousands of applications from Haredim who wanted to enlist," claimed Hadar Peretz, the Defense Minister's representative on the committee.
MK Yinon Azoulay responded with a stinging response: "Then recruit them and that's it, no need for a law...""
She said that Shkdi - a former air force commander - is the first major general in the IDF who succeeded in recruiting Haredim, and quoted the words of the late General Shach that those who are not truly devoted to their profession should enlist, "and not those for whom this definition does not fit...""
""And that's what you did with the report?" Azoulay asked her, sarcastically. "And what if there are 30,000 of them? 5,000 of them? You set 3,000 - how?""
MK Meir Cohen of Mish Atid tried to sting Azoulay, saying that he was in charge of "Noacham" and saw with his own eyes "hundreds of Haredim who are registered in yeshivahs and do not get there...""
""Explain to them what Noham is," Yinon asked. "Haredi youth are disconnected.".
And Hadar Peretz continued to read out data. How many study and don't work, how many work and don't study, how many... and how many... and how it works in the US.
3.
As a matter of fact, I read the report.
It is full of real problems (the army has made promises to rabbis over the years, some of which were not kept, trust was violated... there are really no frameworks appropriate to the skills of every Haredi who seeks to enlist... and more). There are also proposals for a solution.
Too many years later, the army is now trying to solve some of the problems. Screening procedures that include an all-male team, a screening questionnaire that includes questions appropriate to the knowledge that an ultra-Orthodox person who reaches the age of 18 has. There is no doubt that Major General Shkedi did a good job in preparing for the report.
But after producing an excellent report, what happened with the High Court of Justice ruling and the IDF's necessity to act by force happened: sending thousands of orders to the homes of young Haredi candidates for service, while in the background there is still no law and no legal option to exempt from conscription those whose Torah is their art - led the great men of Israel, from almost all circles, to publicly order not to report for the 'first order' at the recruitment offices.
Brigadier General Shai Taib explained that anyone who received a 'first order' and did not report to the recruitment office will receive a 'second order' within 14 days, the proceedings will be delayed, and the end result is the definition of a deserter with all that this implies. A police officer stops you for a traffic violation, finds you are a deserter and takes you to custody; an order to delay leaving the country; and other sanctions, as the legal advisor thinks of them and orders for execution...
Already today, thousands of young Haredi men, aged 18 to 27, potential candidates for service - although in practice we have not called up the vast majority of them - do not receive the 'religious scholarship' that they receive from the Ministry of Religious Affairs (a few hundred shekels per month). The yeshivahs do not receive the monthly budget for these students to maintain them, and so on.
The attempt by the military to show that 'we're trying,' 'we're being nice,' 'we've learned lessons,' does not correspond with what is actually happening on the ground.
""We are talking about a report, and he, Gallant, goes around issuing orders," MK Gottlieb repeated, setting up a mirror to the grim reality.
4.
Then MK Yaakov Asher arrived, amused, leafed through the pages of the Shkedi Report, said he "can read on his own," and asked for explanations only about the introduction, which talks about the values of "unity.".
High-pitched words about "a time of great will in the IDF" (trying to enact a law, and in the meantime, above the head of the committee, the IDF is sending orders and trying to forcibly recruit), "there is great importance in bringing hearts closer and preventing a deep internal rift", "bringing hearts closer requires seeing the other, listening, understanding, accommodating, accepting, not being judgmental, demonstrating greatness of spirit, compromising, finding ways to live together despite differences", "in order to get closer you have to sacrifice and sometimes also swim against the current of people who are close to you and think differently, in order to stop the hatred and heal the rift"...
An MK who wondered whether, in order to explain these lofty words, it would not have been right for Shkadi, in his own right, to come to the committee - and wondered what these pompous words meant and what would actually be done on the ground.
His question remained unanswered.
Shkedi did not come, Shkedi will not come either. And the members of the committee have no choice but to read the report, listen to the IDF's promises (the report states: promises were made in the past, some of which were not kept!) through their representative who did come - Brigadier General Shai Taib.
And in the meantime, the train left the station.
In other words, from two stations: from the IDF station, orders were sent for forced conscription, from the Haredi station, the elders of Israel ordered not to report.
The two trains are moving towards each other, the collision is only a matter of time. Will it happen on the day when an ultra-Orthodox Jew whose Torah is his art is arrested, and the great men of Israel are ordered to launch the 'mother of all demonstrations' into the streets? When a bride emerges from her veil, a woman gives birth from the delivery room, and a million people flood the country's roads, with siddurs and books of Tehillim in their hands?
Time will tell.
Meanwhile, the committee is moving, Yuli Edelstein will try to make a last-ditch effort to close the dam before raging waters wash us all away.
