Politicians from left to right blast Plesner report
Recommendations on universal draft lambasted as ‘puppet show’ by opposition, ‘evil’ by ultra-Orthodox
Stuart Winer is a breaking news editor at The Times of Israel.
Politicians from across the spectrum were quick to criticize the recommendations of the Plesner committee on universal enlistment that were released on Wednesday.
Opposition head Shelly Yachimovich, who has called for early elections, dismissed the press conference where the report was publicized as a “puppet show.”
“It was part of a public deception and a political puppet show, a show that must be stopped at once,” Yachimovich said. “You could just as well hold a press conference about a flight to Mars.”
Yachimovich denounced Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for not dealing with the heart of the problem.
“There is no doubt that Plesner had the right intentions and some of the conclusions are reasonable, but they are coming up against the cynical connection between Likud and Kadima that only serves for political survival.”
Ultra-Orthodox MK Moshe Gafni (United Torah Judiasm) blasted the much anticipated report, which examined ways of inducting the reluctant ultra-Orthodox community into national service. The committee was headed by MK Yohanan Plesner of the Kadima party, which supports national service for all.
“There has never been such a rash of evil and wickedness as there is in that report,” Gafni said. “Plesner’s position is well-known and his conclusions were foregone.”
Mk Haim Amsallem, who broke off from Shas to create a more moderate ultra-Orthodox party, said he accepted many of the report’s recommendations.
“Everyone in the Haredi communities knows there needs to be change,” he told The Times of Israel.
“This is the swan song of the Kadima party,” remarked Zehava Gal-On, chairperson of the left-wing Meretz party.
“Instead of announcing an equal national service law, the report’s conclusions are only there to continue the discrimination,” Gal-On said. “Mofaz has already shown himself to be a paper tiger who makes false crises and threats of leaving the coalition to keep resuscitating Kadima, which long ago became clinically brain-dead.”
The Sucker’s Camp, an organization that campaigns for all sectors of Israeli society to shoulder the burden of national service equally, said it expected Kadima to quit the government within hours if Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu did not accept the report’s conclusions.
Yisrael Beytenu MK David Rotem also slammed the report’s conclusions, saying he wanted to see everyone, including Israeli Arabs, share the burden equally.
Former Kadima head Tzipi Livini said at an education conference in Tel Aviv that her plan for national service that would see every Israeli citizen who reaches the age of 18 inducted into the IDF, be they Jews, Arabs, nonreligious or ultra-Orthodox.
“We need to change the system so that our children will not become the suckers of the whole State of Israel,” Livni said, according to Ynet. “The High Court has created a rare opportunity and we must not be satisfied with just cosmetic changes. This isn’t a political issue, it is a moral one.”