This is a cross post by Marc Goldberg from The Times of Israel
There are tens of thousands of people living in Israel who believe that the state shouldn’t exist and have no problem screaming it from the rooftops. I am not sure that the best thing to do with these tens of thousands of Israel haters is keep them all together, stick a uniform on them, give them a gun and send them off to guard the borders.
I mean what happens when a soldier is too religious to recognise the logic behind standing guard during Shabbat? What happens if he’s too religious to eat army food and starts starving himself to death? What happens if a parking lot in Jerusalem is open on Yom Kippur and the rebbe demands he go on strike? What happens if he hears that there is a woman within 100 miles?
Not that I was a particularly big fan of the Tal Law either, in theory it was utterly discriminatory against, well you know, normal people and I am glad that it’s gone. Having said that now it is gone the magnitude of the challenge that lies ahead is clear for all to see.
So now what? In the analysis put forward in the TOI by Mitch Ginsberg, the mad Rabbis (the ones who think that dressing like they’re in the 14th century is a good idea) aren’t about to roll over and allow the cream of their youth to be shown how nice the light of day outside the yeshivah actually is.
So now instead of funding them to study all day I am going to have to fund a form of army sponsored national service, where military age ultra orthodox will be…doing more of the same?
The truth is that the ultra orthodox world won’t be able to survive contact with the real world. no more than a fraction of those who do 2-3 years military service will be interested in going back to the ghetto once they are allowed by their elders, or forced by the army to serve in regular units and I think that everyone knows it but unfortunately that’s not going to happen.
Anyone who has ever been on an army base knows that there are already too many jobniks for the amount of positions available and in the most part (and clearly there is a minority that this might not apply to) ultra orthodox youth aren’t educated enough or of the mindset where they would be able to fulfil a combat function.
So with the Tal Law confined to history’s dustbin the fight with the ultra orthodox is upon us so now lets fight it properly. Instead of coming to some nonsensical agreement that changes nothing lets take the military age ultra orthodox into the army and spend three years working on actually integrating them into society. Lets teach them all of the subjects that have been denied to them their whole lives, lets teach them enough that they have a choice in how to live once their service is finished and then watch as the greatest obstacle to our beautiful country’s prosperity collapses.
