Drafting Israel's Ultra-Orthodox: Now or Never

Former Knesset member Yohanan Plesner paid a steep political price for the determined struggle he led on behalf of drafting ultra-Orthodox Jews into the Israel Defense Forces [IDF]. The recommendations of the Knesset's Committee for the Advancement of Equal Burden that he headed in the previous Knesset (and which bore his name, the "Plesner Committee"), caused the dissolution of the short-lived coalition partnership between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Kadima leader Shaul Mofaz, and the breakup of the Kadima party. Ultimately, it also left Plesner stranded outside the Knesset walls.

As one of Israel’s promising and highly regarded Knesset members in recent years, Plesner had presented guidelines for drafting ultra-Orthodox Jews; guidelines that were rejected by Netanyahu in order to save the latter’s partnership with the ultra-Orthodox parties. Plesner consoles himself that those same guidelines are being forced on Netanyahu now after the elections, by Finance Minister Yair Lapid and Trade and Industry Minister Naftali Bennett, as their mandatory condition for joining the government.

In an interview with Al-Monitor, Plesner says that he “prays” for Lapid and Bennett’s success, but worries that something will go wrong. He hopes that by the time the plan will reach the stage for authorization by the government and, soon after, the Knesset — that it won’t be transformed into a toothless law, thus squandering the opportunity for historic change. This week, when Bennett presented the main points of the plan, Plesner sounded somewhat worried.

This is almost a dream come true, as far as you are concerned. The plan you fought for, is being imposed on the prime minister …