A Fake Fight

Don't fall for it

There are breathless news announcements about a huge fight and split between Bibi and the charedim. A “leak” from a high-level closed-door Likud meeting quoted Bibi as saying that under his next government, there will be a full conscription law that meets the IDF’s needs, and charedi draft evaders who aren’t learning will be sent to prison if they refuse to enlist. Meanwhile, charedi MKs are saying that they don’t trust Bibi and are reluctant to join his next coalition.

In fact, it’s all a performance, like professional wrestling. According to some reports, just like professional wrestling, it was actually planned and coordinated in advance.

Bibi is not going to make any attempt to meet the IDF’s needs. He’s going to continue to try to exempt all the charedim and give them billions of shekels. He’s not even pretending to want to draft charedim who are learning Torah; he’s already managed to convince sufficient people that they should legitimately be not only exempt from army service, but also receive vast financial subsidies for their lifestyle. And he won’t make any efforts to draft and punish those who aren’t learning; instead he will ensure that there is no auditing of who is really learning (just like Likud ensured that there is no auditing of which schools are actually giving their students a useful education), and that there are no serious punishments for evaders.

In other words, he’ll continue to do exactly what he’s been working hard at doing all along. This is because he doesn’t have enough support from Zionists and is desperate for charedi political support. And if he manages to form another government, this time without Zionists like Gallant and Edelstein and Ilouz who frustrate his plans, he’ll be even more successful at it.

Meanwhile, for the charedim’s part, they are well aware that nobody will ever offer them as much money and assistance with draft evasion as Bibi and the current government parties do. They will never be partners with anyone else.

This is AI, but I only because I don’t have rights to use the real photos like this

So what’s this “public fight” all about? Simple. The charedi blanket opposition to enlistment, along with their refusal to give their children a basic education and their insistence on massive financial support, is deeply problematic even for some of Likud’s voters. And so Bibi has to pretend that he won’t tolerate it any longer, and his charedi partners have to pretend that there is a rift between them. Then, they hope, enough people will vote Likud so that Bibi can continue to enable charedi freeloading.

This is all perfectly obvious, but if you want some supporting evidence, the government just arranged to transfer an additional NIS 267 million ($88 million) for charedi “education.” This includes funds for the Vaad HaYeshivos, an organization that helps arrange for charedim to avoid enlistment, as well as millions for “dropout yeshivos” that exist in order to ensure that charedim who are not interested in learning have other engaging activities and do not enlist. These are not the actions of a government that is interested in meeting the IDF’s needs and enlisting charedim, even those who are not learning.

The fight is all an act. Let’s hope that not too many people are gullible enough to fall for it.