If it weren’t real, it might have been laughable. On Sunday night, Housing Minister Yitzhak Goldknopf gave a revealing interview to a haredi radio station, insisting that the draft exemption bill for the ultra-Orthodox community was the “minimum” they deserved. “We sit in the government and give our share,” he explained, “and we want to know for once that we will also receive our share... there is a large bowl, from which everyone will take what they need.”
In his comments, Goldknopf revealed how he views the state – as a dispenser of favors rather than a collective enterprise. According to Goldknopf, his community’s role in “giving” is helping Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stay in power, and now it’s time for the government to reciprocate and give them what they need – a legal exemption from IDF service.
Goldknopf is right that there is a “large bowl” in Israel, but what he fails to grasp is that this bowl isn’t there to take from; it’s for contributing to the State of Israel – through military service, participation in the workforce, and paying taxes.
All of this is important to keep in mind because next week the Knesset returns to work, and if Goldknopf has his way and Netanyahu caves to his pressure, we will soon witness what could be one of the year’s greatest disgraces: a coalition government enshrining an exemption from military service for 13% of the country. In simpler terms – a disgrace.
Just this week, I received messages from a friend currently serving in reserves in Lebanon. “When will the war be over? People here are burned out and worn down,” he wrote. When I replied – sarcastically – that the war will end with the “total victory” that Netanyahu keeps promising, my friend replied, “Forget about a victory. There won’t be one here. The only victory is when we get to go home.”
This friend has served more than 200 days in the reserves over the past year. He is nearing 40, has three children, and runs his own business. His exhaustion is profound, and his experience is not unique. The IDF is stretched thin, and reservists are increasingly worn out as the war drags on. Instead of finding ways to draft the ultra-Orthodox, the government is pushing for the opposite and poised to pass a bill that will cement their exemption.
Soldiers and reservists are carrying an increasing burden
And what is dealing with the increase in missions alongside a decrease in soldiers (due to those killed or wounded) doing? It is increasing service for those who already serve. Soldiers carrying out their compulsory service will serve four additional months and reservists will simply keep getting called up. But haredim? Nothing. They – apparently some 70,000 in the recruitment age group – will continue to benefit from the state without any obligations. They will continue taking from the bowl without putting anything into it.
Defense Minister Yoav Gallant has been the lone voice in the government opposing Netanyahu’s plan, which in itself is astonishing. How, for instance, can Agriculture Minister Avi Dichter – once the head of the Shin Bet and a veteran of the elite Sayeret Matkal unit – stay silent? Of all people, he should understand the value of military service.
The same goes for Education Minister Yoav Kisch, a former F-16 fighter pilot and lieutenant colonel. He knows what could happen if the IDF lacks enough soldiers. And then there are Diaspora Affairs Minister Amichai Chikli, who served as a company commander in the elite Egoz Unit, and Transportation Minister Miri Regev, a former brigadier general who served as the IDF spokesperson. They, too, remain disgracefully silent.
These ministers have the power to stop this travesty simply by telling Netanyahu that they will not support the bill. But they choose not to act, and with their silence, they are causing Israel irreparable harm.
In the coming weeks, as the bill moves through the legislative process, we will hear arguments that now is not the time to debate such divisive issues, that national unity must take precedence while the country remains at war. They will urge restraint and discourage discourse on “matters of religion and state.”
But make no mistake, this will be nothing but a spectacle. It will be an effort by Likud and Netanyahu’s supporters to shield themselves from the disgrace they know this legislation represents. It will be a desperate attempt to hide their shame for allowing such a travesty to even be considered in a nation where every young man and woman is needed to defend the country.
Can we stop this bill? I do not know. But what we can do is ensure that Regev, Kisch, Chikli, Dichter, Netanyahu, and every other supporter of this bill is not allowed to escape the stain it leaves behind. They will have to carry the burden of this decision for the rest of their lives, long after the legislative dust has settled.
The writer is a senior fellow at the Jewish People Policy Institute and a former editor-in-chief of The Jerusalem Post.