The Haredim view the secular government as a foreign government that they are commanded to exploit and deceive, to lie to it and to extort as much money from it as possible.

They see the state not as the beginning of the redemption, but rather as a direct continuation of the exile. In eastern Europe it was the gentile landowner they had to get along with, now it's the government. That's why they don't have a problem with not fulfilling any civic duty: teaching the core curriculum, working, serving in the military. So what if the Mishna says that everyone, even a newlywed couple, must take part in the event of an obligatory war.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5517879&forum_id=2#47584163)

Over the years they have come up with all kinds of reasons to avoid conscription. This time it's the nonsense uttered by Sephardi Chief Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef: "Without the Torah, without the yeshivas for married men, there would be nothing, there would be no success for the army. ... The army succeeds thanks only to those who study Torah, the Torah is what protects us."

First of all, who needs this kind of protection? After all, 631 service members have died since the war began. Perhaps they were killed because the "Torah studiers" weren't actually studying, but were only "enrolled" at a yeshiva? Or perhaps they had committed so many sins that God rejected their studies?

The second argument that Yosef gives for the draft evasion is also funny. He says the Haredim are Levites, who are exempt from military service. Apparently he has knowledge of ancestry and race research. It actually seems to me that the Haredim are members of the tribes of Gad and Reuven, about whom Moses said: "Shall your brethren go to the war, and shall ye sit here?" – which shows there have always been draft dodgers.

We can learn about the Haredi attitude to Israeli soldiers from remarks by two prominent leaders of the "Lithuanian" – non-Hasidic – stream. Rabbi Dov Landau prohibited yeshiva students from attending military funerals or even making hospital visits to wounded soldiers. Let them die in peace, what does he care? Rabbi Yisrael Bunim Schreiber said that IDF soldiers are like "garbagemen," and "it's none of our business, the ones who are killed… They have no connection to us, they are not our brothers."

It's time we realized that the real reason for Haredi draft evasion is the blunt and straightforward desire to protect their children's lives. The Haredi lawmakers are elected in order to make sure that no military funeral procession ever leaves from Bnei Brak.

Their job is to guarantee that Haredi mothers and fathers will continue to sleep well at night, while secular and non-Haredi religious parents shake in fear every time the doorbell rings. All the other arguments are just a charade. Therefore, the secular response must be no less sharp and clear: Conscription of all of the Haredim, at the age of 18, without exemptions, without tricks and without contrivances like "alternative civilian service."

The problem is that as long as Chamberlain is prime minister, it won't happen. He'll let the Haredim stay in their cities of refuge, without working, without enlisting, and receiving billions in return, to boot. And all on one condition: that they continue to be loyal to the governing coalition. After all, staying in power is the only thing that the most despicable man in the history of the Jewish people cares about.

I do have one good thing to say about Rabbi Yosef. It was 22 years ago that Sara Netanyahu said that unless her husband remains prime minister, "We'll move abroad, and the whole country can burn." Yosef only threatened to move abroad. He is not yet setting us on fire.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5517879&forum_id=2#47584165)

Great

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5517879&forum_id=2#47584842)

seems like this breaks the prohibition against worshipping idols

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5517879&forum_id=2#47585029)