| Inside Israel |

Drafting the New Draft Law

By Eliezer Shulman | June 20, 2018

he blue-ribbon panel appointed by Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman to analyze the chareidi draft law issued its recommendations last Tuesday. Now, a week later, Israel’s chareidi public is anxiously awaiting the verdict of gedolei Yisrael.

The Moetzes Gedolei HaTorah of Agudas Yisrael convened on the matter last week, ruling that the proposed legislation as currently written is not satisfactory, and if it moves forward in this form, chareidi MKs must quit the government. The Agudah Moetzes didn’t specify whether chareidi MKs should negotiate only on certain clauses or on the entire draft of the legislation; but it’s speculated that they’re waiting to hear what the Moetzes Gedolei HaTorah of Degel HaTorah has to say. The Degel Moetzes didn’t meet due to Rav Gershon Edelstein sitting shivah for his son, Rav Yosef z”l, who passed away last Wednesday at the age of 66. The Moetzes Chachmei HaTorah of Shas, under the leadership of Rav Shalom Cohen, likewise has yet to convene.

What the Bill Says

Among other things, Lieberman’s blue-ribbon panel recommended setting new draft targets for the army and for national service, to gradually raise those targets each year, to levy economic sanctions against the yeshivos if they don’t meet those targets (after a two-year grace period), and to increase benefits for those who serve in all frameworks. After IDF Chief of Staff Gadi Eizenkot and Lieberman approved the panel’s recommendations, the Defense Ministry wasted no time in formalizing legislation, with the goal of pushing it through by the end of the Knesset’s summer session, in two weeks’ time.

Heading the panel was IDF legal advisor Itai Ofir. Members included Brig. Gen. Eran Shani, head of the Human Resource Planning and Management Division; Brig. Gen. Sharon Afek, chief military advocate general; IDF Chief Rabbi Eyal Krim; and Moshe Tzin, head of the Defense Ministry’s social defense department. Conspicuously absent was any chareidi representation.

The proposed bill submitted by the panel is meant to replace the law that Israel’s Supreme Court struck down in September 2017. The High Court gave the state one year to formulate a new law, a deadline with only three months remaining.

At What Price Liberty?

Enlistment targets won’t be raised much in the first few years, so only minimal ramifications will result, mainly in the form of administrative sanctions on individuals and yeshivos with a lot of bochurim failing to register. The problems will start when the draft quotas reach 40% and higher. The chareidi sector will have a hard time meeting those targets, and the yeshivos will pay the price in the form of draconian cuts in government funding. The legislation would also head off the possibility of the yeshivos backfilling the lost funds with money from other government sources.

Nevertheless, according to one knowledgeable source, the law is not so terrible. Penalties could reach a maximum of 34%, and would be levied against the chareidi tzibbur as a whole, not against individual institutions. It would be plausible to expect a cut of between NIS 100 and 200 million from the entire yeshivah budget of NIS 1.2 billion.

“It’s not a small sum,” he says, “but by paying it, we can buy our spiritual liberty. By comparison, during the Olmert government, when an appeal was submitted to the High Court against the yeshivos ketanos for failing to meet the core-curriculum criteria, it was Shas that forged the way, willingly giving up 45% of its budget [government funding allocated to Shas-run educational institutions], in return for scholastic independence in those mosdos, and that continues to be the case today in our talmudei Torah. In the worst-case scenario, the yeshivos will also have their budget cut back — albeit by an amount that is 10% less.

“You also have to take into account that without a law, we stand to lose a lot more. For the sake of comparison, the previous government cut the yeshivos budget by half, regardless of whether or not [the yeshivos] met any [draft] quotas. Financially speaking, the law being discussed now is nowhere near that bad. If someone could promise us 20 years of quiet in exchange for giving up a big budget cut, I don’t think anyone would oppose such a law.”

One Remaining Hitch

According to the source, there is still last caveat: the legislation has to meet the Supreme Court’s smell test. Only then would the chareidi tzibbur be granted spiritual liberty and left alone.

“That would be the case only if the High Court accepts the law and doesn’t strike it down,” he says. “If the High Court nullifies the law, it will be the precursor for a new, much worse draft law, based on the [kal v’chomer argument] that if the previous, stricter law was thrown out, a softer version certainly won’t pass. Essentially, this approach is at the heart of the opposition of the chassidim, who fear precisely this scenario.”

And all this doesn’t even touch on the fact that if they vote for this law, the chareidi MKs would ipso facto be supporting legislation that punishes those who learn Torah.

“Only gedolei Yisrael can render a decision in this regard,” says the source. “They will have to reckon the extent of the perceived damage, the chillul Hashem involved, versus whatever practical benefit could arise from chareidi support for the law.”

Some chareidi MKs are already openly expressing their dissatisfaction with the law.

“The outline was prepared without any input from United Torah Judaism representatives,” Deputy Education Minister Rabbi Meir Porush told Mishpacha. “The recommendations include a clause that revokes the authority of the defense minister to grant deferrals from army service to yeshivah students in the event that quotas are not met. We are consequently prohibited from approving this legislation, which alters a longstanding, decades-long, fundamental status quo.”

Porush added that before the current government was formed, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu gave his assurance that there would be no quotas, and that all Torah students would receive deferrals.

Shas chairman Rabbi Aryeh Deri was just as decisive. “Shas has expressed its displeasure with the attempt to punish lomdei Torah through reducing the budgets of the institutions. We will not contribute to eroding the status of yeshivah students.”

United Torah Judaism chair Rabbi Menachem Eliezer Mozes slammed Lieberman’s panel for not soliciting input from any chareidi MKs, even though they did welcome comment from anti-chareidi political figures like Yair Lapid and Elazar Stern. Rabbi Mozes criticized the panel for the inherent discrimination against the Torah world embodied in the sanctions, pointing out that secular academic institutions suffer no such consequences, despite many university students also evading the draft.

On the other hand, MK Rabbi Moshe Gafni said “the law is okay,” and in the meantime he is waiting for the opinion of Degel HaTorah’s Moetzes Gedolei HaTorah.

Down the Road

What will happen if the quotas aren’t met? In the first two years, nothing. Starting from the third year, a conscription rate less than 95% of the target number will result in a reduction in the yeshivos budget. In the event that annual quotas fall below 85% for three consecutive years (not including the first two-year grace period), this proposed draft law would expire 12 months later. In other words, back to square one.

The proposed legislation would also reduce the age of exemption after deferral from 26 to 24, and defines “chareidi,” for the purpose of meeting quotas, as anyone who studied in the chareidi educational system for two years between the ages of 14-18, including those who are currently not considered chareidi.