The Shas party criticized journalist-turned-politician Yair Lapid on Tuesday, over his alternative to the Tal Law, which exempts chareidi-religious soldiers from service in the IDF.
Lapid outlined his plan in the first conference of his new party, Yesh Atid, which he held earlier Tuesday. Lapid’s plan would give, in the first stage, an automatic exemption from serving in the IDF to all chareidim.
The second stage of the plan would be implemented five years later and as part of it, every citizen who turns 18 will be required to enlist in the army or perform civil service. Those who refuse to serve will lose all their rights to benefits and scholarships with the exception of national insurance.
“Mr. Lapid, we do not hate you but the public is getting tired of your hypocritical language games,” Shas said in a statement, directly addressing Lapid after he directly addressed chareidim in his earlier remarks.
“If you had only studied the matter a little deeper you would have found that those individuals who study Judaism do not receive special allowances and that the vast majority of the members of the traditional-religious community served in IDF combat and specialized commando units while you were attacking old newspapers on the hills of the Bamachane newspaper,” added Shas, referring to Lapid’s military service as a journalist for the IDF newspaper.
“For once,” the party told Lapid, “try to study seriously without using shady methods in the academia.”
The last part of the remarks was referring to the “Lapid Affair”, which began when the Council for Higher Education was asked to probe a decision by Bar Ilan University to admit Lapid directly to a Master’s and then a Doctoral program, despite his not having a B.A. degree.
The prestigious Culture and Interpretation program, to which he was accepted, normally requires students to complete a B.A. with Honors before they can be considered for acceptance.
The affair came to a close on Tuesday when the Plenary Committee of the CHE voted unanimously to endorse the committee’s recommendation to monitor and enforce basic requirements for admissions to graduate programs at Israeli Universities.
The council ultimately rejected the notion of “exceptional conditions” and voted to bar anyone who has not completed an undergraduate degree from graduate programs.
Read more: Arutz Sheva
{Arutz Sheva/Matzav.com Newscenter}
Lapid will get no where, simply because of his actions. He had a list of things he wanted to accomplish if he is elected, the Jew issue, was last on the list, but like always, you can read him like an open book, he immediately went on to attack the Jews (army service). I have read many of his articles. He is cunning, while he tries to stay away from direct attack on Jews, but in the long run, that is what he is doing. There are far more important issues, that have to be addressed, but this guy like everyone else, thinks that israel is doomed, unless these Torah Jews don’t start join the army. What a shame. This is all part of “Eretz Yisroel NiKnas Be’Ee’sureim . Don’t get me wrong about army. I was inducted to Reserve duty when I made Aliya many years ago, we paying our share in TAXES, but it is the way the lsraelis use this issue against us, calling us parisites etc. they REALLY do not want us in the army. But it makes them Good Headlines. Lapid’s Party- YESH ATID is doomed to fail. He has A Future, but not in Israel.
An apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.
Mr. Lapid is a Fascist. We are not the property of the State. We have no obligation to serve the State. The most basic concept of Democracy is that the State belongs to the citizens and it is the role of the State to serve its citizens.
And yes, it would be nice if Mr. Lapid starting learning Yiddishkeit on a regular basis, but before we can influence the chilonim to learn, we have to show them that we care as much about them as fellow Jews as we do about the people in our own little political parties.