The "Gedolim" Slander the Rest of Israel

What's the opposition to the Charedi lifestyle actually about?

I have some posts in the works about such fascinating topics as medical cases involving pigs and the rationalist/ mystical divide, and a Chinese scam involving leopards and specifically religious Jewish victims (which is not the one I posted about a few weeks ago!). But these will have to be put on hold because there is a relentless progression of appalling things happening with charedim and the army draft that need to be called out.

Last week, the “Council of Gedolei Torah” of Agudas Yisrael in Israel formally declared that they will be withdrawing from the government. But their explanation for why they are doing so involves lies and slander.

The reasons why there is opposition to the charedi lifestyle are very straightforward. Hundreds of soldiers have been killed, thousands have been injured, tens of thousands have suffered severe emotional trauma, and hundreds of thousands of their family members have suffered. And there is now an enormous manpower shortage, forcing reservists to leave their careers and families for month after month after month. This causes immense hardship to tens and even hundreds of thousands of people - wrecked careers, ruined marriages, damaged families.

And through all this, the charedim are simply not involved and don't care. Instead they are insisting on wholesale army exemptions, causing everyone else to have to serve for much longer. And on top of this, they demand enormous financial support and subsidies! Not only do they fail to help share and relieve the burden, they create a situation which is simply unsustainable for the country. Of course there is opposition!

Yet the charedi "Gedolim" claim that this opposition is about "persecuting the world of Torah." And they talk about how the government has "reneged on agreements," as though nothing happened in between the signing of these agreements in 2022 and today that gives cause for change.

If you're going to insist that your understanding of religion requires you to completely ignore the Gaza war, and to selfishly demand everyone else to make enormous sacrifices for you and moreover pay you for this "privilege," at least be honest about it, rather than slandering everyone else.