I did not come up with the title to this article
The conscription bluff
I did not come up with the title to this article. This was the title given by a well-known ultra-Orthodox commentator to an article he published this month in the ultra-Orthodox newspaper Yated Ne'eman.
Uri Regev 17/03/2022 15:18
Tags: IDF · conscription · haredi · ultra-Orthodox · enlistment
IDF soldiers
He writes about the ongoing fraud in reporting on the numbers of ultra-Orthodox IDF recruits; on the ongoing delays in the legislative proceedings that have been mandated by the Supreme Court; on the repeated excuses used to delay the Court hearings; on the expectation that these delay tactics will continue; and on the improbability that this process will lead to the conscription of ultra-Orthodox men, even to the extent of the modest goals set out in the bill discussed by the Knesset.
An incredible development was reported last night in two other ultra-Orthodox newspapers. They too write that the IDF is neither meeting, nor expected to meet the conscription goals listed in IDF conscription law. They further report that the Legal Adviser to the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Security Committee has informed the Committee of her opinion that the proposed IDF conscription law is unconstitutional and will not stand the test of the Supreme Court. Furthermore, according to the article, Defense Minister Gantz, in a letter he recently sent to the committee, states that the IDF has no real way of knowing the number of conscripts among yeshiva students. This is because the information provided to the IDF through the relevant government ministries (Education and Economy), is only partial – and the IDF has no way of verifying it. It turns out, based upon the Defense Minister's statement, that the necessary steps have not been taken to implement the lessons and recommendations of the Numa committee, which investigated the massive falsification of ultra-Orthodox conscription data two years ago!
It is unbelievable that a military capable of striking with surgical precision at targets thousands of miles from Israel’s borders does not know what is going on in its own conscription centers throughout the country.
Although two years have passed Since the Numa committee published its shocking report, following earlier leaks that made the public aware of the scope of the fraudulent information provided for years to the Knesset to enable it to carry out its oversight, the IDF still does not know how many ultra-Orthodox soldiers are enlisting and doing their share in bearing the burden of Israel’s national security. The Numa Committee described the culture of lies and falsification of Haredi conscription data, but its softened message did not bring about the necessary “bang” to set the matter straight. So, even today, two years later, the IDF does not know how many ultra-Orthodox are enlisting, beyond knowing and reporting that they are far from meeting the quota required by the government.
It is unbelievable that a military capable of striking with surgical precision at targets thousands of miles from Israel’s borders does not know what is going on in its own conscription centers throughout the country. There is but one conclusion: They do not know what they [and the political leadership overseeing their operations] do not want to know! Protracted initiatives of legislative conscription and the reality of the left hand [IDF] not knowing what is happening with the right hand [Ministry of Education]… are all intended to ensure the non-conscription of ultra-Orthodox men. The continued preferential treatment of the ultra-Orthodox sector at the expense of the non-Haredi conscripts is carried out, often exacting blood and pain from the latter. The public must not put up with this ongoing scandal, which is an ugly result of political cynicism and continued surrender to ultra-Orthodox political blackmail. It's high time for one conscription standard for one people!