Har Bracha Yeshiva Regains Hesder Status

This is great news:

Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon decided Monday to renew the military's cooperation with the Har Bracha yeshiva located in Har Bracha, Samaria. The yeshiva will regain its “hesder” status, thus enabling its students to serve in the special hesder track that combines yeshiva study with army service.

It was the previous defense minister, Ehud Barak, who canceled the hesder arrangement because of statements by the yeshiva dean, Rabbi Eliezer Melamed, against soldiers' participation in the eviction of Jews from their homes.

The Har Bracha Yeshiva expressed its pleasure with the decision to reinstate it in the hesder track. The Hesder Yeshiva Federation also expressed its approval: “The minister's decision is a clear statement by the defense establishment against those who maliciously attack the hesder track.”

It pays to stick to one's principles!

Here are some things about this subject that I wrote way back when:

Jpost Lies

Barak Removes Har Bracha From Hesder Program

Rabbi Melamed: Standing Courageously for the Truth of Torah

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?

Gilad Shalit Deal is a Criminal Mistake

Very bad news:

The Israeli cabinet voted late Tuesday night on the deal to release kidnapped Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit. The vote came following a stormy meeting.

26 ministers supported the deal with only three – Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, Infrastructures Minister Uzi Landau, and Strategic Affairs Minister Moshe Ya’alon – voting against the deal.

First of all, kudos to Avigdor Lieberman, Uzi Landau, and Moshe Ya'alon for opposing the deal.

What happened to all the other ministers? Are they unaware of the fact that terrorists from past "exchanges" have murdered again?:

The former IDF chief rabbi claimed that Palestinian terrorists released since the 90's have, over the years murdered over a thousand Israelis in a long line of terror attacks and the defense establishment is aware of the possibility that "within just a few months the Shalit deal might blow up in our face in certain terror attacks, there is no 'maybe' about it.

He added that this wasn't his stance; rather it was the opinion of professionals in the field – including some with a left-wing outlook that is "very far from his own"

As to the question of whether there would not be a huge blow to morale among the troops on the Israeli side when soldiers know that the IDF won't necessarily do everything to rescue them from captivity, Ronsky said: "Just the opposite. They don't want to be exchanged for terrorists; they want to be rescued through a military operation."

This is truly a mistake of criminal proportions.

I would write more about this but Sukkot is on the way. I would not be surprised if the timing of this decision was intentional: Most of the nation is busy preparing for the holidays and we do not have time to protest this folly.

May God save us from the stupidity of our leaders. Chag Sameach!