Gantz, Golan slam reported Bismuth plan for interim resolution on Haredi draft

Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee chairman Boaz Bismuth’s plan for ultra-Orthodox enlistment will not solve the conscription crisis and is only intended to preserve Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition, declares Blue and White-National Unity chairman Benny Gantz.

“First of all, let me be clear: everyone serves. Every 18-year-old youngster is required to serve, regardless of whether he is in the Ponevezh yeshiva or in high school in the Eshkol Regional Council,” tweets Gantz.

“But as long as the state continues to put goals on paper, without sanctions, personal responsibility and without changing the rules of the game — nothing will move. What was presented is not a new outline for mobilization — it is a new outline for preserving the coalition.”

Bismuth reportedly supports the passage of a wartime “emergency regulation” that would allow for the immediate conscription of enough soldiers to solve the problem of the military’s current manpower shortage while also lifting sanctions on ultra-Orthodox draft evaders.

The Democrats party chief Yair Golan also slams Bismuth’s reported plan, stating that it “won’t recruit a single Haredi,” adding that the Likud politician is “spitting in the faces of tens of thousands of soldiers and reservists” with his “shameful evasion scheme, designed to waste time lying to the public and try to buy more time in power.”