Netanyahu and Mofaz produce no breakthroughs on service law
Meeting between the PM and Kadima chief called after Yisrael Beytenu pulls out of Plesner committee
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Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with his deputy and Kadima chairman Shaul Mofaz on Friday morning to discuss the quandary in which the governing coalition now finds itself regarding the recommendations of the so-called Plesner committee. The meeting ended without producing any breakthroughs, and the men are scheduled to confer again next week.
The committee, headed by Kadima MK Yohanan Plesner, has been charged with recommending an alternative to the now-defunct Tal Law, which for ten years granted virtual exemptions from military or national service to ultra-Orthodox yeshiva students.
On Thursday, Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman’s Yisrael Beytenu party pulled its members out of the Plesner committee, officially titled the Committee for the advancement of inclusion in service and equality in sharing the burden, over the panel’s agreement to not impose individual sanctions on Israeli Arabs who refuse to enlist for military or national service. The Jewish Home party also quit the panel on Thursday.
However, the prime minister’s main concern vis-a-vis the committee’s recommendations is different from that of the foreign minister. Netanyahu is worried about the Plesner committee’s intention to recommend individual sanctions for ultra-Orthodox draft-dodgers, a move that is causing serious discontent among the religious factions in the PM’s coalition.
MK Otniel Schneller (Kadima) criticized on Thursday the Plesner committee’s plans to recommend much lighter demands of Israeli Arabs than of the ultra-Orthodox. Speaking to Israel Radio, Schneller threatened that he and other party members would leave Kadima if a satisfactory solution to the problem of inequality in service was not reached.
MK Ahmad Tibi (Ta’al) said Friday that Arab Israelis are not willing to be victims of a political game between parties. He told Israel Radio that before talking about equality in service, it is necessary to talk about equality in society.
The Plesner committee called on Friday for Liberman to return his party’s representatives to the panel so that it can resume its work.
The Times of Israel Community.