This isn't how you should treat a wound. This isn't how "the responsible, stable part" of the government should behave. An attempt to behave evenhandedly is not "winking at the haredim." Actually, intimidation through penal sanctions -- as if it is even possible to jump into command cars and speed through ultra-Orthodox towns, incarcerating thousands -- is an irresponsible gesture to those fanning the flames within our nation, to those who seek "peace now" disguised as "haredi-recruitment now." And, as with the pursuit of peace contracts, these people are going to suffer a defeat that will end up damaging us all. Actually, it is already damaging us all. There have been serious and appropriate steps on the road to universal conscription but, on Monday, the whole thing dissolved into chaos. In the last decade, progress has been achieved on the issue of ultra-Orthodox recruitment. Thousands enlisted. The haredi street began to accept that enlisting was legitimate. Quietly, without impassioned declarations, the process got underway. The gradual induction of haredim into the army was happening parallel to other deep sociological, cultural, geographical and political developments, which were steering haredi society toward greater integration with the whole society. The Peri committee -- named after Science and Technology Minister Yaakov Peri (Yesh Atid) and tasked with drawing up haredi-recruitment reforms -- is pulling us backward. The proposed penal sanctions seem extraneous. In the end, they'll just become a dead letter in the legal books. These so-called "easy profits" are like a bull in a china shop, thinking that one can force the haredim to do something they inherently see as a threat to their existence. And this is what the aggressive and ruthless recruitment campaign of late has suggested: From the haredi community's perspective -- their moderates don't have a say anymore, thanks to the extremists within our society -- for the first time in Israel's history, the military issue is being positioned to everyone's detriment against Torah study. Do you want to resolve the issue or do you want to mouth off to the public with populist slogans about dismantling the government? Yesh Atid Chairman Yair Lapid said that whoever thought his party was going to buckle (don't founder; be flexible, be sagacious) was not familiar with the party. Well, whoever thought that aggressive sanctions would cause the haredi public to fold, really -- and I mean really -- didn't know the community at all. It seems that we don't understand the ultra-conservative way the community behaves in times of hardship. Further, we are carelessly pitting the state head-to-head against the haredi public. Instead of integrating the two sides, we are postponing and hindering any sort of reparation. This isn't Zionism, it's belligerence. Likud and Habayit Hayehudi need to muster the historic responsibility to reject magic solutions and support long-term goals. In the meanwhile, instead of focusing on the haredim, we should be rewarding those who serve.
