Q&A: Black-and-White Army
Black-and-White Army
Question
Hello, Your Honor,
In recent days one hears the claim against Brothers in Arms and their ilk
who are speaking out against the refusal of the Haredim to enlist and in favor of absolute equality in sharing the burden,
even though they themselves encouraged refusal and in practice acted that way, as is well known,
when it seemed right to them.
Now I hear secular friends honestly saying
that if, hypothetically, all the Haredim enlisted (which will never happen… ever),
then within 20 years, maybe less, the army would become entirely Haredi—
the birthrate today (very roughly speaking) stands at 1:6 in favor of the Haredim, and in first grade they are already 45%, etc.
So they too, as secular people, would be looking for a way to avoid serving in such a Haredi army.
I wanted to ask what the Rabbi thinks about this claim.
And whether the sweeping call for enlistment and absolute equality in sharing the burden
isn’t full of asterisks.
Answer
Yes, I have heard these idiotic claims. I’ve already gotten used to the fact that there is no limit to the brazenness: that the group of draft-dodgers who desecrate God’s name and do not take part in the burden of defense accuse others of refusal. I have also gotten used to their low level of thinking when they touch on these questions. If you do not understand the difference on your own, there is no point in my answering a fool according to his folly.
Discussion on Answer
*** Deleted due to the spreading of foolish, baseless poison. If you want to spread your obsessions, please open your own website. M.A. ***
I think the argument is a bit different:
The assumption underlying those who encouraged refusal was, in simplistic form: if the state does not go in a direction that is critical in my eyes, I do not intend to protect it, and I will even encourage others not to protect it, since it has no value if it goes in that direction.
And then the Haredi comes along and says: funny, that’s my claim too, except that in my eyes the “critical” things are completely different.
But when push came to shove, the refusal-encouragers from the anti-Bibi camp showed that they did not really mean it (and indeed, good for them!), so the Haredim were left with the claim only in theory.