MK Yuli Edelstein (Likud), Chairman of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, visited the IDF's Hashmonaim Brigade today (Thursday), seeing the effort of the commanders to ensure that Haredi soldiers who enlist enter as Haredim and leave as Haredim "in another three years."
Edelstein said that the effort is "still in its beginnings" and that the "numbers are still low" when it comes to Haredim willing to enlist and join the IDF. Edelstein said that "both we and the IDF still have a long way to go" in drafting Haredim into the army.
Edelstein then said that his committee, which must approve any draft law to be presented to the Knesset, would make every effort to ensure a draft law which will allow "drafting at high numbers, tracks which will allow" Haredim to serve in combat and combat support positions in the IDF, and sanctions against those who don't want to serve.
Edelstein said that he hopes the effort will succeed and that all the conditions are in place for success, however the main thing is that the IDF has a "real operational need for additional soldiers" and "it is our duty to provide a response to that need.
Earlier this week, Defense Minister Israel Katz presented Edelstein's committee with his principles for a draft law, which include a gradual increase in the number of soldiers enlisted every year - from 4,800 this year to 5,700 the next year, until 50% of each Haredi cohort is recruited every year by the seventh year.
Edelstein has said this is unacceptable, and that he will not agree to a "temporary" solution to the problem or one that will be drawn out over many years.
For his part, Katz has insisted that any solution to the draft problem must involve the agreement of the Haredi community and especially its spiritual leadership, otherwise the numbers will simply drop and not recover, no matter what the law says.
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