‘No ideology, no love for the country’: Yair Golan assails government over Haredi conscription law

Speaking with reporters in the wake of the failed attempt to pass an opposition-backed bill to dissolve the Knesset, The Democrats chair Yair Golan charges that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “entered a room with the heads of the Haredi factions and left with a disgraceful agreement” in order to stay in power.

“There is no ideology here. There is no love for the country here. There is no concern for security here. Only cynicism. Only selfish survival,” he declares, arguing that not only was Netanyahu betraying those who serve in the military, but also members of the Haredi community who “want to contribute to the state.”

“I call on the ultra-Orthodox public, on the ultra-Orthodox boys and girls, do not be afraid, come enlist, let us be Israelis who serve together. Let us be one people,” he says.

“The Democrats will not enter a government that does not ensure complete equality in the draft,” Golan promises, calling on other opposition parties to “pledge together to the citizens of Israel that we will never again sell out the serving public” and that the current government will be “the last government of evasion.”

Responding to a reporter’s question as to why the opposition did not withdraw the bill to dissolve the Knesset after it lost Haredi support, Golan responds that he was “happy that this law was brought up and the reason is simple: we have exposed the true face of the Israeli government and its leader.”

Asked by The Times of Israel what he thinks about the compromise reached by the Haredi parties and Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee chairman Yuli Edelstein, Golan calls the Likud lawmaker a “paper tiger” whose decision constituted an “unparalleled disgrace.”

“What appears to be sanctions is not sanctions. It is an incentive for ultra-Orthodox youth to stay in yeshiva, that’s all,” he says.