Architect of law intended to draft haredim into army slams IDF

Retired judge Tzvi Tal - who in 2000 headed a committee that recommended ultra-Orthodox not be exempt from mandatory military service - expressed his disappointment on Thursday in the way the Tal Law has not been implemented. "The Tal Law has not been implemented because the Israel Defense Forces is not interested in recruiting ultra-Orthodox soldiers," Tal said.

"The intention of the law was to enable the ultra-Orthodox to serve the country in some way and integrate them in society at large. The implementation was not performed well, however," Tal said in an interview with Israel Hayom.

"A year after the Tal Law was approved, the Security Service Law was also approved, stating that students studying 45 hours a week in a yeshiva are entitled to hold jobs as well. Forty-five hours is a lot, but it reduced motivation to serve in the IDF, because they could also hold jobs without serving in the IDF."

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According to Tal, the main issue is how the IDF is handling the matter. "The IDF was charged with establishing a framework to absorb the ultra-Orthodox - which means providing a framework that handles issues such as kosher food, religious Sabbath day observance, gender-related Jewish laws, and other areas associated with the ultra-Orthodox lifestyle. Ultra-Orthodox communities should have been campaigned to join the IDF, but nothing was done and no attempt was made to recruit them, because the IDF does not want them.

"We could easily form another battalion composed of ultra-Orthodox soldiers - not those who would drop out of the program, but the better ones - but the IDF isn't interested. Over the past 10 years, the pace of drafting ultra-Orthodox into the IDF has been very slow. If the law is continuously not implemented, there is no reason to extend it. It doesn't matter if they extend it for five years or one year. As long as they do not carry it out, it is as if they did nothing," Tal said.

Tal warns that the law should not be cancelled before a more permanent arrangement is found for the issue. "If the law is cancelled, everyone, without exception, will have to be drafted into the IDF, and it is clear to all that no one [among the ultra-Orthodox] will join the IDF and there will only be confusion and contempt for the law."

A debate in the Knesset on the extension of the law scheduled for Sunday was postponed, even though the law is set to expire at the end of the month - meaning the extension will have to be approved in the coming weeks.

Political analysts believe the law will be extended for an additional two years to enable the establishment of a more permanent arrangement for ultra-Orthodox service in the IDF or another comparable civilian service.

The IDF Spokesman's Unit issued a statement on the matter, saying "In recent years, the integration of ultra-Orthodox in the IDF has expanded greatly, and the intention is to double the number each year and bring them to 2,400 recruits by 2015. To ensure the best and most meaningful service possible, ultra-Orthodox soldiers have been granted unique frameworks within the IDF."

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