Shas distances itself from minister’s call for some Haredi youth to join IDF

The ultra-Orthodox Shas party appears to distance itself from one of its ministers after he endorses the idea of enlisting some members of the Haredi community.
“The subject of the conscription law and the status of yeshiva students is entrusted exclusively to the rabbis of the Council of Torah Sages and is managed by the movement’s chairman Rabbi Aryeh Deri and his representative to the negotiations Rabbi Ariel Atias,” the party says in a statement.
“The movement’s representatives were instructed not to comment on the issue at all,” the statement continues, adding that its official position will be communicated “exclusively” via official party channels.
The party’s apparent repudiation of Interior Minister Moshe Arbel of Shas comes after he said during a podcast that ultra-Orthodox leaders needed to show “courage” and declare that “those whose status has been revoked and who are eligible for conscription must be part of those bearing the burden.”
According to national broadcaster Kan, Arbel was referring to yeshiva students who were denied the status of full-time Torah students by the Vaad HaYeshivot (Yeshiva Committee), a body that coordinates between ultra-Orthodox yeshivas and the Defense Ministry in matters of service deferments
Arbel’s comments echoed those of his fellow Shas Minister Ya’akov Margi, who told the Kikar Hashabbat website in February that members of the Haredi community not engaged in full-time Torah study should be drafted “by force.”
However, both ministers’ rhetoric stands at odds with that of Rabbi Moshe Maya, a senior member of Shas’s leading Council of Torah Sages — the body that directs the party — who recently stated that even those who do not learn full-time in yeshiva should not serve in the IDF.