Secular Coercion Will Fail (part 4)

The "draft drama" continues.

Yohanan Plesner and company did not get their way, so Kadima left the coalition:

The Kadima party has approved party head MK Shaul Mofaz’s proposal to leave the coalition. Three MKs voted against leaving.

Likud MKs accused Mofaz of leaving for political reasons. Mofaz said his party had to leave over disagreements with Likud over enlisting hareidi men to the IDF. However, Likud MKs said, Likud offered several proposals in the matter, and Mofaz rejected them all.

In the meantime, the ultra-Orthodox press revealed information about Plesner that was not known to the general public:

The Merkaz Inyanim newspaper did some checking into the background of Plesner, the man behind the committee, the champion of the “share the burden camp” and reports that the MKs father was not a Jew, but a Catholic from Denmark, a descendent of priests and bishops. The paper reports the MKs parents were married in a church.

You can see Yohanan's father, Ulrik, here.

The son of a gentile is hardly the man to decide the fate of Torah learning in Israel, according to the aforementioned press.

Then came Avigdor Lieberman's turn. He wants to draft everybody, including the Arabs. His bill took a whacking:

The Knesset on Wednesday killed a bill that would have mandated universal military service for all Israelis at age 18 – including Arabs and Hareidi-religious – by a vote of 74 to 22.

The bill from Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman's Yisrael Beytenu party would have made those who refuse to serve in the army or perform national service ineligible for funding from the State.

After the Knesset voted down the bill, Lieberman said "reality will do what the bill didn't. Right now were focusing on August 1 (the expiration of Tal Law)."

Indeed, August is less than two weeks away. Will the Knesset pass a bill which is acceptable to the ultra-Orthodox, or will we face chaos in less than two weeks? Time will tell.

Secular Coercion Will Fail (part 3)

Ya'alon gets it:

If the government adopts the Keshev Committee's recommendations on drafting haredim into the army, it will cause a civil war, Strategic Affairs Minister Moshe Ya’alon said Thursday morning on Israel Radio.

"I would like to see the haredim join the IDF at 18 years old," Ya'alon said. "But if we try this, we will start a civil war."

Kadima party chair Shaul Mofaz and Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu will also meet again on Thursday in an attempt to work out differences on the issue, Army Radio reported.

MK Yohanan Plesner (Kadima) walked out on talks with Ya’alon about a universal service bill on Wednesday, when the two sides were unable to reach agreements on key issues. After Plesner and Ya’alon discussed and agreed on enlistment quotas and personal sanctions for those who do not join the IDF or do national service, the Likud minister presented a different stance in a Wednesday-afternoon meeting.

The main dispute between Likud and Kadima was over whether there should be quotas limiting the number of yeshiva students permitted to avoid the draft, as Kadima demands, or merely setting targets for the number of haredim drafted, which the Likud prefers. The parties also disagree on the final age at which service could be avoided and the extent of sanctions against draft evaders.

Ya'alon said that his proposal was more realistic than that being put forth by MK Yohanan Plesner, the Kadima MK who has taken up the mantle of increasing the IDF draft rate for haredim. "The haredim will not vote for my proposal, but they will not star a civil war over it," Ya'alon said, "Plesner's proposal will erase all the inroads we've made in integrating haredim, including the Nahal Haredi program."

Plesner is still in the dark. How can he be helped?