Oded Ben Ami: Last night, the students of Rabbi Shalom Ber Sorotskyn, Rosh Yeshiva of the Lithuanian 'Ateret Shlomo', celebrated a very happy and joyful event, the wedding of the rabbi's son. Here, this is how it looked and sounded ("And we do not stand in their chambers, we do not believe in the rule of the infidels... Let us all listen together!")
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One is the source, one is the translation. The words of the poem we heard, 'We do not believe in the rule of the infidels, and we do not stand in their offices.' They may not stand in the offices of the government, but the government, the state, pours 26,256,812 shekels into the coffers of this yeshiva, which is a third of the annual budget of this institution.
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I want to ask you first, Sherry, are you not showing up, but are you benefiting from the budget?
Shari: Look, it used to be easy for me, I would come here and say about these songs: 'This is the Jerusalem faction,' 'This is the extremist faction,' this is 'Neturi Karta,' and it was really easy for me, and now, you say 'Chasidim of Rabbi Suretzkin. No, this is a Lithuanian faction, not a faction, this is mainstream Lithuanian, 'Degel Hatorah', he has a network of yeshivas throughout the country, small yeshivas, large yeshivas, really, avrechims, kollel, really, an extensive network. So whoever doesn't show up doesn't get a budget from him, let's just point out that, but you're right that he still gets large budgets from the state. Now he will also get a lot of budgets from Satmar, because he actually did something that Satmar applauds.
And it hurts that we've come to this situation. Now, it's very easy for me to think, and maybe that's the truth, that it's in the spirit of Purim, after all, it's the month of Adar, and it's not like anyone planned, 'Let's sing this song.' The orchestra, which consists of Hasidic musicians, played it, and the guys flocked because it's 'coming Adar' and happy, etc., and he also flocked with them, because he's such a nice character, and he's also the head of the yeshiva of course, and that's it. But...
Oded: But it's not so funny when you see the magnitude of the funds, and you know that not all of those people who danced there reported to the recruitment offices...
Shari: Look, the situation that the Haredi public has reached is difficult, because we are conducting a dialogue here between two extremes in the population, one of which does not understand the other.
The Haredim say, 'Just keep the Torah students for us, really and seriously, we'll give you those who don't study. For civilian service, for MDA, for ZAKA, for the Hasmoneans, here, there, just like in the general population, which is divided into all sorts. The state currently does not provide civilian service, and does not recognize 'Shora' workers and does not recognize ZAKA workers. There is a dialogue here that is heading for a collision. And the result is this song, which hurts all of us, it hurts you as a secularist, it hurts me as an Haredi! I don't want us to get to this situation, where a secularist and a Haredi meet in an elevator, and look at each other with hatred!
Oded: Dafna, first of all, where does the conscription law stand, because they will have to report to some office. So they reported to the office of the Minister of Finance, who allocates the budget.
Dafna Liel: Look, I'll tell you the real trap for the Haredim, there is no conscription law now...
Oded: By the way, that's not true, factually. There is a conscription law.
Daphne: No, as if I mean a law that is enacted.
Oded: There is a conscription law in the State of Israel: An 18-year-old enlists, an 18-year-old enlists.
Ministers: Service for All Law.
Dafna: I meant the law that the coalition promised so that there would be no conscription. So this law is not currently making progress, because it does not have a majority in the coalition, and Netanyahu managed to convince them, wait, just a little bit more, we will pass the budget, and then all the problems will be solved, and there will be a law, and everything will be fine. But what? If there is any chance that the more liberal members of Knesset, in the coalition, will support a conscription law, it is if Netanyahu were to call them into the room and tell them, 'Listen, it is either a government or conscription.' So between these unsympathetic choices, decide what you decide. After a budget has already been passed, and the political future of the government is secured, and our security situation is not improving - will the liberal members of Knesset agree to support a law that frees the Haredim? I don't see any chance of that in the world.
And I say it this way: There will be a budget, a draft law, and they will be able to apply the... to lead the Haredim.
Oded: Yes? Will there be a budget?
Dafna: There will be a budget, there will be a budget, and they will also be able to smear and attract the Haredim for another period of time, but it is very possible that a moment will come when the Haredim will realize that they are simply being made fun of. So that this does not become a precedent, and from now on it will be the new normal that they do not truly accept their own soulmate, which is, after all, the soulmate of most Haredim Knesset members. This could cause Netanyahu a lot of trouble down the road.
Oded: What do you think, Sherry?
Sari: I am one of those who believe that the one who will bring the Haredim a conscription law, and the one who will recognize the Torah scholars, is actually the left bloc. Center, left, I don't know if headed by Yair Lapid, or headed by Naftali Bennett, or by another representative who will restore the left, and I hear about all kinds of organizations... In the end, they, as Ben-Gurion understood at the time, will understand, and then the Haredim will say, 'Well done Netanyahu, it was very nice, you didn't provide us with the goods, we had a bad time with your government,' and they say that 'we had a bad time with your government,' I think that's where the solution will be found. In the end, they will recognize the Torah scholars group, and it is the secular left that will tell the Haredim, 'You know what? A Jewish state, you will preserve our democracy, we will preserve your Jewish one, come on, let's come together.
Oded: An interesting approach, without a doubt.
