At one of the high points of the Feb. 26 televised debate on Israeli Channel 2 among eight party leaders, a verbal altercation developed between Shas Party Chairman Aryeh Deri and his Yesh Atid counterpart Yair Lapid. It started out over the divisive issue of drafting Israel’s ultra-Orthodox, and very quickly spilled over into personal, sectorial and identity-related recriminations.
Lapid, who made the mandatory draft of eligible ultra-Orthodox men the flagship of his previous election campaign and subsequently pushed through legislation implementing it, turned to Deri and said: “The ultra-Orthodox have to enlist just like everyone else. It’s out of the question that my son will do basic training at the Shizafon [basic training] camp, whereas the son of someone who has a political party that arranged for him not to be drafted — will not serve in the military.”
