Everything related to the equal burden -- in addition to a few other political issues -- has caused Habayit Hayehudi to suffer a split personality disorder in public. Habayit Hayehudi does not comprise one component, and when crunch time comes, it gets weak in the knees, adopting maneuvers that do not save it from having to vote and make a choice. On Monday, it seemed as though the party hanging on a claim of sorts that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had asked for the ultimate decision regarding mandatory haredi conscription ("the criminal sanctions") to be achieved through understanding, compromise and an air of accommodation. That almost goes without saying. Who doesn't want that? This law is based on the assumption that it is possible to reach a comprehensive agreement where the majority opinion would be limited to as sparse a few clauses as possible. A separate claim, however, alleging that Netanyahu put in a request on Tuesday to delay the vote over mandatory haredi conscription actually indicates the high level of anxiety permeating Habayit Hayehudi. No such request exists. It is true that, throughout the last several months of deliberations beginning with former Kadima MK Yohanan Plesner in the previous Knesset, continuing at Science and Technology Minister Yaakov Peri's committee before settling finally at Habayit Hayehudi faction chairwoman Ayelet Shaked's forum, the general assumption that Likud and Habayit Hayehudi were doing everything within their power to stave off confrontation with the ultra-Orthodox factions was widely accepted. But right now, no such request was ever uttered by Netanyahu or any of his close associates. The public tracks the rate of haredi IDF draft dodging. It follows Aryeh Deri's Shas, which derided Bank of Israel Governor Karnit Flug's recent statements over the well-known fact that the rate of haredim (and Arabs) entering the workforce has been lagging behind its customary pace. Public ire has been aimed mostly at haredim and the legal system, but the embarrassment actually belongs to Habayit Hayehudi. The phrase from Genesis 25:22, "And the children struggled within her," is applicable to Habayit Hayehudi. The party stands behind widening conscription to the military but is trying to prevent it from happening among soldiers at hesder yeshivas. In that way, they are caving to rabbis with vested interests, who do not paint a favorable picture of religious Zionists serving in the army. Shaked finds herself in a similar bind from time to time, trapped in a front with haredi representatives and Likud in her committee against Yesh Atid, Hatnuah and Yisrael Beytenu. Nobody finds it very pleasant. The Shaked committee is going to finish voting next week. If a law mandating all-inclusive conscription is not passed covering all haredim -- save for a select few "exemplary Torah scholars" -- then the trend demonstrated by reserves soldiers hitting the streets on Tuesday calling for a truly equitable law, with support from the movement for quality of government, is only going to gain traction. They are not looking for the gradual conscription proposal, but one according to Palmach anthem: "Every man strides forward boldly; each with weapons in his hands" -- including the haredim. Justice demands total equality here and now. Logic agrees with a stepwise process. But a situation where the law is nestled between justice and a stepwise process and then falls by the wayside between both values cannot happen. It will result in nothing. Even a redundant government crisis will not be able save those involved from having to make a decision.
