The More Things Change...

Yisrael Beitenu party leader Avigdor Liberman (TVJ News)

Looks like the changing of the guard may not usher in the changes that many of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s detractors were hoping for.

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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