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| Yisrael Beitenu party leader Avigdor Liberman (TVJ News) |
One of the primary criticisms of Netanyahu was his desire to
retain power at any cost. To that end, he brought very unpopular political
factions into his ruling coalition to guarantee the minimum 61 seats needed to
do so: the extremist right-wing factions of Ben-Gvir and Smotrich, and the
Charedi parties, whose condition for joining the coalition was a full exemption
for Charedim from the IDF.
The Charedi refusal to serve in the IDF was particularly
egregious after October 7, when Israel needed to declare war against Hamas in
Gaza, thereby requiring as many able-bodied Israeli reservists as possible to
serve in combat.
There was a shortage of manpower, which Charedim could
easily have helped fill had they been subjected to the same rules as everyone
else in Israel. Their continued refusal to serve - allowing the rest of the
country to do it for them - meant that reservists’ tours of duty were extended
far beyond any reasonable expectation of time in service.
The fact that there were not enough reservists to lighten
the load and spare soldiers such lengthy tours of duty meant that more people
served longer periods and were therefore more exposed to injury and death,
disruption of careers and jobs and family disunity that often included PTSD
than by far there would otherwise have been had sufficient personnel been
available.
Charedim absolutely refused to serve in any capacity. Their
leadership even refused to allow those who were not learning full-time to
serve. This left everyone else to do the bleeding for them.
Now that Israel’s president, Isaac Herzog has asked Gadi
Eisenkot to form a coalition government, a sense of relief might normally have
fallen over all those serving in the IDF and their families. After all,
Eisenkot said that under no circumstances would anyone be exempt from army
service. The entire country - including Charedim - would have to serve.
One of his likely coalition partners, Avigdor Liberman, had
previously said he would never join a coalition that included the Charedi
parties.
But you know what they say: Power corrupts. Absolute power
corrupts absolutely...
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