Liberman, Likud MK castigate Haredi MK Gafni’s comparison of government to Roman Empire

Yisrael Beytenu party chairman Avigdor Liberman slams senior Haredi politician Moshe Gafni for treating the IDF like an “enemy,” after the Degel HaTorah faction chairman compared Israel’s treatment of yeshiva students to that of the Roman Empire.

Addressing a conference of the Yeshiva Students’ Committee in Kibbutz Hafetz Haim, Gafni declared that the government’s “current war against the Torah world is reminiscent of the Romans,” who “fought against the Jewish people to prevent them from learning Torah.”

In response, Liberman tweets that “Gafni turns the IDF into an enemy, [MK Meir] Porush threatens civil war, and [United Torah Judaism leader Yitzhak] Goldknopf dismisses the pain of religious Zionism. The draft dodgers fight everyone: the state, the army, Zionism — just not the real enemy: Hamas.”

Speaking with the Haredi news site Kikar HaShabbat earlier this week, Porush warned that the conflict over ultra-Orthodox enlistment could escalate into “civil war” if legislation is not passed regulating military service exemptions for yeshiva students.

Degel HaTorah, along with Hasidic Agudat Yisrael, make up the United Torah Judaism party. UTJ and fellow ultra-Orthodox party Shas have been pushing hard for the passage of a bill enabling most ultra-Orthodox males to continue to avoid military conscription or other national service.

Last month, Goldknopf sparked widespread outrage when he said it’s none of the Haredi community’s concern if other Israelis are dying while fighting in a war, while they refuse to join.

Speaking with the religious Zionist Makor Rishon weekly, Goldknopf, whose party recently left the coalition over its failure to pass legislation exempting yeshiva students from the mandatory draft, was asked about the high number of members of slain soldiers from the national-religious community and answered: “Their pain will be with them and our pain will be with us. Don’t bring me your pain and pass it on to me. Let’s decide that everybody has their own burden.”

Likud MK Dan Illouz similarly slams Gafni, calling the comparison a “disgrace.”

“While Hamas burns babies alive, you liken the poor defenders of Israel risking their lives for all of us to the bitter enemies who burned Jews to prevent Torah study,” he says. “Shame on you, take your words back.”