YWN reports the following:
The IDF announced on Friday morning that it has initiated criminal proceedings against bnei yeshivos who did not report to enlistment centers after receiving draft orders.
According to the IDF spokesperson’s statement, anyone designated for enlistment who did not comply with the recruitment order he received will be considered to have committed a criminal offense.
The IDF said that the decision is based “on Section 12 of the Security Service Law, after all necessary processes have been exhausted.”
“The IDF is the army of the people and operates professionally and officially to enlist all who are required to enlist, in accordance with the law and the instructions of the political leadership,” the statement continued.
“The IDF will continue to enforce the law and take action against candidates for service who violate the law and do not report to the recruitment office.”
Until recently (before the war) the majority of Charedi Yeshiva students had registered for the draft as per the instructions of the two most respected senior rabbinic leaders of recent times: Rav Aharon Leib Steinman and Rav Chaim Kanievsky. Once registered they could ask for and receive deferments as long as they continued their full time Torah study. These two great leaders belived in compromise that worked for both the Charedi world and the government and thereby avoided conflict.
There was, however, Rav Shmuel Auerbach, a ‘renegade’ rabbi (so determined by one of the aforementioned rabbis) who did not believe in compromise. He ordered his students in Jerusalem to violate the law and not register at all. That resulted in arrests that were followed by mass protests by students under his influence.
Now under the leadership of new senior rabbinic leaders, they have ordered all students to no longer register. This is their reaction to the IDF need for more manpower due to the duration of the war and seeking relief from a large population base that had been fully exempt.
Now that the IDF is threatening arrests, Trump’s prediction
of all hell to pay may come to fruition. Only not they way he meant it.
One may recall what happened to the students who chose to follow Rav Auerbaqch and refused to register. When one of them was arrested, there were massive protests by hordes
of those students that disrupted the peace. Traffic was blocked and no one
could get to their destinations, including emergency vehicles. Violence followed in some cases.
Imagine what it will look like if a student is arrested now. That scenario will be multiplied many times over. It would amount to a civil war. One that would surely end with violence from both sides. I don’t want to see that. Even if in principle the IDF would be right to arrest draft dodgers. Especially during a war (if the ceasefire/hostage deal somehow falls apart).
My guess is that Charedi leaders believe that the threat of something like this happening will be enough to stop the IDF from doing it, But the IDF just insisted that are going to.
Charedim believe that God is on their side and that they will prevail. But what if God is on the side of rabbinc leaders who say that IDF service is mandatory under current conditions? Who is to say that God is not in their side?
I don’t want to see what will amount to a civil war. Jew against Jew. I don't want to see masses of Yeshiva students in jail.
As I have said so many times - it doesn’t have to be this way. Even if the Charedi rabbinic leaders are right about Yeshiva students being fully exempt, it cannot be the case that all of them are.
The reality is that the IDF has a quota in mind. They have a manpower shortage that could easily be filled up by a small percentage of the Charedi world. Probably less than 10% of them. Can it be the case that every single Charedi student registered in a Yeshiva is pulling his weight? Frankly 10% is probably a very conservative estimate of those that are not. And some of those aren't learning at all. They are just registered but end up hanging out all day. Not that they are evil or lazy. They are just not cut out for as life spent all day in the Beis HaMedrash.
Why shouldn’t they be required to fill the gap? If I am not mistaken the very same leaders that so vehemently oppose any kind of draft law concede that those students should serve in the IDF. Is there no room for compromise? I guess not.
That there is no willingness to compromise is the problem. They are not following in the peaceful ways of their abovementioned predecessors who did.
Now that push is coming to shove, I fear the consequences. I believe if anything terrible happens the fault will lie at the feet of these very leaders.
But even if the Charedi leaders are to blame arresting masses of Yeshiva students will not change anything. It will instead probably harden their resolve to resist.
What's the alternative for attaining a just solution to this issue? No clue. However, now that the war seems to be coming to a close, things may ease up a bit.
On the other hand resentment from the rest of Israel against the Charedi world because of their refusal to serve in the IDF during war will surely linger. This problem will not go away until a compromise is reached. Once the war is over, perhaps that will be the time to make it happen.