Israel Matzav: Yair Lapid's Purim shpiel

Sunday, March 02, 2014

Yair Lapid's Purim shpiel

In a sharp Facebook post, Moshe Feiglin, a longtime advocate for a volunteer army, blasts what he calls Yair Lapid's Purim shpiel.

“The last thing that Lapid wants is for hareidi men to flood the army. But the system of ‘screw them over’ and win votes is working wonderfully for him,” he charged.

“The last thing the army wants is the hareidi community – the military is already carrying the weight of the roughly 50% of soldiers who aren’t needed,” he argued. “More enlisted soldiers, with special needs regarding kosher food and gender segregation – who needs it? But the Chief of Staff will never say that publicly.”

“Many hareidi youth actually want to enlist,” he continued. “To finally be part of their country, to be able to earn an honest living.”

“But of course, they’ll be at the protest, to preserve their place in the flock,” he said.

“For hareidi leaders, Lapid is worth his weight in gold. In today’s reality of Internet and smart phones, it’s not easy to keep the youth isolated from Israeli culture. The ‘demon’ Lapid, the ‘Amaleki Titus,’ allows them to build the walls higher,” he accused.

“Just like a real Purim ball,” he wrote. “Each person arrives with a mask that is the inverse of reality.”

That's largely true. In the last ten years, thousands of Haredi men decided they weren't cut out for yeshiva and went to the army. Netzach Yisrael, the Haredi army brigade, is the largest combat unit in the army. Lapid has all-but-closed it. If we were getting to the point that there was no shame in having a family member go to the army, that is no longer the case.

But then, this isn't the first time Lapid has harmed the army according to Feiglin.

“Tell me please, who contributed more to Israel’s security – Yair Lapid or Yisrael Eichler?” he asked in a post to his Facebook page. MK Eichler, who is hareidi, did not serve in the military.

“I don’t mean to start a discussion on the importance of Torah learning – which I definitely believe in – but let’s say Eichler learned Chinese all day. Who contributed more to defense – him or Lapid?” he continued.

“Of course it was Eichler,” he argued, explaining, “When Eichler reached age 18, he didn’t bother anyone, there was no need to deal with him for three years in exchange for zero productive contribution to Israel’s defense. Eichler didn’t steal resources at the expense of security.

“So Eichler contributed more than Lapid,” Feiglin concluded.

Lapid served in the army as a military correspondent for the IDF’s Bamahaneh magazine. He is a vocal proponent of imposing criminal sanctions on hareidi men who do not enlist in the IDF.

Most soldiers currently serving in the army take more in terms of state resources than they contribute in terms of defense, Feiglin argued. The solution, he said, is a professional, volunteer army.

“All this stupidity of ‘equal burden of service’ means increasing the hidden unemployment in the army, increasing the national debt, and worst of all – weakening our defense,” he argued.