From the Liveblog of
Sunday, August 11, 2024
Haredi deputy minister compares cut to daycare subsidies to biblical destruction of Jerusalem
Sam Sokol is the Times of Israel's political correspondent. He was previously a reporter for the Jerusalem Post, Jewish Telegraphic Agency and Haaretz. He is the author of "Putin’s Hybrid War and the Jews"
Deputy Transportation Minister Uri Maklev appears to compare efforts to cut daycare subsidies for the children of yeshiva students who refuse to obey military draft orders to the destruction of Jerusalem in the sixth century BCE.
Responding to Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara’s order to Labor Minister Yoav Ben-Tzur to halt the subsidy, Maklev, a member of the ultra-Orthodox United Torah Judaism party, quotes a verse describing starving infants from the Book of Lamentations, which describes the tragedy and is traditionally read on the upcoming fast of Tisha B’Av.
Social media users criticize Maklev, noting that a nearby verse describes mothers being driven to eat their children out of hunger and arguing that the comparison to daycare subsidies is inappropriate.
