Shari Roth, the political commentator for Haredim 10, and former MK Eitan Cabel discussed today (Wednesday), in a conversation with Udi Segal and Anat Davidov on 103 - the Haredim's withdrawal from the coalition due to the conscription law.
Udi Segal: Is Motka Blau saying what others don't dare to say? He says, 'Guys, don't confuse your minds, we will never be drafted, we will build a school for Netanyahu'... And the question is whether the school they will build for him includes core studies or without core studies...
Sherry Roth: Well, I didn't hear his whole conversation, I don't know exactly what he said...
Udi: I'll tell you the most blatant thing he said, which is something that will still resonate, he said that the plan to recruit Haredim is like the Basel Committee's plan to destroy the Jewish people. Only spiritually they want to destroy the Jewish people.
Sherry: So you know what? Precisely because he says that, I think we need to listen to the fear of ultra-Orthodox parents. You know, Mrs. Yudkin, whose son was killed for the sake of honoring God in the IDF, was less afraid that he would go to the army and come back to her dead than she was afraid that something in his lifestyle would change, or that when he was killed they wouldn't let him write 'God will raise his blood' on the grave.
I've heard her say it more than once, I know this woman, these are the things that were important to her. You have to understand the spirit and heart of an ultra-Orthodox family. Everyone says: 'Oh, they don't want their children to be killed.' No. So first of all, not everyone gets killed in the army, like he told you, I heard the end. Some of them serve in the 'camp' and some of them make omelets and work in IDF kitchens and everything is good and everything is service.
Anat Davidoff: And there are also fighters who come out of this in peace, thanks to Kel.
Sari: That's right, and what the Haredim believe is that Torah study is a force that constitutes some kind of 'spiritual umbrella' that saves the country, that brings miracles. But never mind, I don't really expect to convince people who don't believe in this. I just want you to understand that there are people who believe in it and that it's worth respecting.
Udi: Let's talk politics. We tried to talk to Blau about the issues and didn't get an answer, about the moral issue of people who are partners in running the war, not sending their children. Practically, what will happen? What do the Haredim think will happen after they create a 'school for Netanyahu'? That there will be no conscription at all?
Sari: First of all, the Haredim did want a law, because right now, when there is no law, it is a situation of 'evasion'. The Service for All Law that exists today is the real evasion law, because under this law, all Haredi society has become one big 'Jerusalem faction' and does not allow anyone to go to the army, not even those who have dropped out.
Udi: But they are against the law. Today there is a conscription law, a conscription law that says everyone has to enlist.
Shari: I say, this law is a bad law. What they tried to do in the committee, and I sat a lot in Yuli Edelstein's committee, was try to come up with some kind of outline, the army for its part tried to establish units that for the first time are actually trying to turn themselves into 'Mehadrin'. Last week I was at the inauguration of the 'Hasmonaim' brigade. These are things that haven't happened before.
When I was at the inauguration at Netzach Yehuda about two years ago, I didn't see such a display of 'mehadrin' and separation, simply a partition like at Haredi weddings, it hasn't been like that until today. So the army is now starting to build trust with Haredi society and is trying to tell mothers, 'Send the child, we will take care of you mehadrin, we will take care of you for the ceremony where you finish the tractate and do everything in a Haredi atmosphere.' It has only just begun, so give this process time to mature. Take a law, take the quotas that Haredi are willing to give, let's start, as soon as this process continues - and there is real trust, then there will really be larger numbers. But it hasn't started yet.
Anat: Let's go, Eitan, straight to politics. Just like we heard Rabbi Blau say, basically everyone, about Edelstein - and Netanyahu is not mentioned, even though I did manage to get out of him 'Netanyahu is sitting' and 'doing nothing' 'he's a crybaby', etc.
Eitan: Of course. They understand that some of their voters, once they know they're going to break up the coalition, they're not just leaving, they're not bringing down the government. And those are two different points. And it's not for nothing that they suddenly make the decisions a few days before the July 24 end of the session. They've broken into the schedule.
This is so Aryeh Deri, this is so League for Jobs, this whole process is so transparent. I say this almost every day: Netanyahu's mission and for those who actually issue the Aryeh Deri statements - is to reach the end of the summer session with the government standing on a deadlock, the Knesset standing on a deadlock, meaning there is a coalition, weaker, less weak, they now have until the end of October to hold discussions, do everything that is required, maybe even set an election date for February-March, which in Israeli terms of Israeli politics is completely timely.
Anat: Absolutely, right.
Eitan: So, that's all - I don't want to say a game, but it's so transparent that for me, as a veteran politician who looks reality in the eye, it's embarrassing.
Anat: Yes, the last Deri who wanted Shas to resign, he doesn't want to and has no choice, right?
Sari: Yes, the party that could lose voters from this move is Shas, because in United Torah Judaism there is this thing where everyone follows what the rabbis say. Shas has a lot of voters, some of them Torah believers who will do what the rabbis say and not leave the party, but it has several seats that are parked in an area where the Likud could potentially take them.
Eitan: That's most of them, by the way...
Sari: No, no, Shas has several hardline Bnei Torah mandates.
Eitan: I want to remind you that they have over 10 seats, I think, of which three are Bnei Torah.
Shari: No, I think they have five seats for Torah scholars, for 'as long as they last,' for everything the rabbis say, and in particular, don't forget that Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef is his father's son - and for many Torah scholars who "sneak" it's very talkative, and when he says to radicalize then they will continue to follow the party through fire and water. And yet if Deri drops from 11 to 6 then it's a very serious situation.
Eitan: That's exactly the point. Incidentally, this is the same problem that exists for Ben Gvir, and for Smotrich, and for some of the Torah world today.
Shari: That's not it, Eitan, I'll explain to you, those in the 'Degel HaTorah' community, for example, who were right-wing and 'Bibi' and 'Heida Bibi' and all that have long since gone to the lap of Ben Gvir and Smotoritz, or even to Likud. There are fringes in the Haredi community, or whatever you call it, who have long since ceased to be in 'United Torah Judaism'. That's why it's not increasing. By natural growth it should have increased more and it's floundering on its mandates because it simply lost - it lost a great many modern people who are no longer with it, so that's why those who are with it - will go through fire and water with it and people understand that the world of Torah is the most important thing and understand that the rabbis determine.
And you know what? I've been hearing in the Haredi area for a year now, 'What are they looking for in this government? Just jobs and positions to leave already,' because the people are really suffocating, the people are going around with economic decrees that are hard for them to bear, and they don't understand what the MKs are looking for there and are clinging to their seats.
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