Monday January 7th, 2018
Bnei Brak
Scores of ultra-Orthodox Jews gathered last night in peaceful protest in front of the local home of MK Moshe Gafni, Chairman of the Knesset Finance Committee, a so-called "religious" member of the Israeli Knesset from the UTJ party – whose religious garb leads the peoples of the world, and especially the residents and neighbors of the Holy Land, to believe that religious Jews are in agreement with all Zionist actions and policies.
They recited psalms and distributed literature accusing Gafni of betrayal and of collaborating with the (openly) non- and anti-religious, in their efforts to recruit girls into the Israeli Defense Forces.
The demonstrators say that during the past month, MK Gafni reached an agreement with Yair Lapid, Chairman of the Yesh Atid party in the Knesset (one of the most vehemently anti-religious) on the subject of recruitment of religious girls, which is due to arrive shortly at the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee. "Gafni," according to the leaders of the demonstration, “is forging an arrangement with Yesh Atid which would enable the army to take control of the conscription of girls.”
There is a huge chasm of division between Zionism – with its State of “Israel” – and Torah-true, authentic Judaism. Nowhere is the ideological divide more sharply apparent than in the current struggle over forced conscription into the IDF. The religious Jewish community has always been staunchly opposed to joining the Israeli army, following the fundamental principle of Jewish belief that Jews are in exile and are forbidden to have their own state or army, or to wage wars against any nation. This is in addition to their objection to the ongoing immoral behavior of the Israeli army; and the widely-held belief that the true purpose of the forced conscription is not the enhancement of the numbers of servicemen – the primary goal is to force the community’s youth to violate their religious beliefs, to mold them into “modern (read: secular) Israeli citizens,” to have them abandon the Torah.
The struggles against conscription in general, and of girls in particular, are as old as the State itself. According to Jewish law having girls or women serve in the Israeli army comes under the category of adultery: one of the three cardinal sins – together with bloodshed and idol-worship – which a religious Jew must avoid even at the cost of his or her life. There have been arrangements in place for many years exempting religious girls, but the exemptions have become ever more difficult to obtain.
The very fact that the subject is again on the table is tangible and concrete proof that the situation has deteriorated and the war against Jewish law and beliefs has intensified. The fact that Gafni and other members of his so-called “religious” party are willing to compromise on such a basic Torah prohibition means that they are finally showing their true colors, and exactly how religious they really are.