Israel Shouldn’t Take Unilateral Steps on the West Bank

With the peace process stagnant at best, and the knife intifada continuing unabated, it may be understandably tempting for Israel to take action on the West Bank without a negotiated settlement—whether to withdraw unilaterally, to annex overwhelmingly Jewish areas, or to pursue some other plan. The temptation, argues Yaakov Amidror, should be resisted:

Those advocating for a Palestinian state say that while a comprehensive solution cannot be brokered at this time, steps must be taken to advance it. . . . The proponents of this approach seem willing to pay a hefty price for meager results that could, at some point, work in favor of the notion of an independent Palestinian state.

[Thus they] are willing to roll the dice and risk a potentially devastating result, one that would tear Israeli society apart for no actual achievements in the international theater or with regard to the Palestinians, who are sure to keep fighting the remainder of the “occupation.” Moreover, terrorism will only become worse, as it has after every Israeli concession. . . .

When standing on the edge of the cliff, keeping still is better than stepping forward. This is always solid advice, and it is doubly true for the chaotic Middle East. . . .

Israel should [instead] focus on improving the lives of the Palestinians, as well as on how to navigate the situation the day after Mahmoud Abbas’s regime ends, as he has no heir apparent.

Read more at Israel Hayom

More about: Israel & Zionism, Israeli Security, Knife intifada, Palestinian statehood, West Bank

It’s Time for Haredi Jews to Become Part of Israel’s Story

Unless the Supreme Court grants an extension from a recent ruling, on Monday the Israeli government will be required to withhold state funds from all yeshivas whose students don’t enlist in the IDF. The issue of draft exemptions for Haredim was already becoming more contentious than ever last year; it grew even more urgent after the beginning of the war, as the army for the first time in decades found itself suffering from a manpower crunch. Yehoshua Pfeffer, a haredi rabbi and writer, argues that haredi opposition to army service has become entirely disconnected from its original rationale:

The old imperative of “those outside of full-time Torah study must go to the army” was all but forgotten. . . . The fact that we do not enlist, all of us, regardless of how deeply we might be immersed in the sea of Torah, brings the wrath of Israeli society upon us, gives a bad name to all of haredi society, and desecrates the Name of Heaven. It might still bring harsh decrees upon the yeshiva world. It is time for us to engage in damage limitation.

In Pfeffer’s analysis, today’s haredi leaders, by declaring that they will fight the draft tooth and nail, are violating the explicit teachings of the very rabbis who created and supported the exemptions. He finds the current attempts by haredi publications to justify the status quo not only unconvincing but insincere. At the heart of the matter, according to Pfeffer, is a lack of haredi identification with Israel as a whole, a lack of feeling that the Israeli story is also the haredi story:

Today, it is high time we changed our tune. The new response to the demand for enlistment needs to state, first and foremost to ourselves, that this is our story. On the one hand, it is crucial to maintain and even strengthen our isolation from secular values and culture. . . . On the other hand, this cultural isolationism must not create alienation from our shared story with our fellow brethren living in the Holy Land. Participation in the army is one crucial element of this belonging.

Read more at Tzarich Iyun

More about: Haredim, IDF, Israeli society