With Help From Major Itamar Ben David By Justine Hemmestad
According to i24 News, the war in Gaza is “winding down.” As my friend Major Itamar Ben David explains, “There are different stages to the war that were pre planned, they just move to a different phase of military activity.” Ben David also says in regard to the next stage of military activity, “The war with Lebanon is a question of when, not if. I don’t see any diplomatic effort that can solve it because no Israeli will go back to his home up north based on some paper signed by blood thirsty Jihadists. Israel has zero trust in the UN and any other international guarantees because for decades it only failed us.” The lack of trust is under- standable; as author Avigail Gimpel has said, Israelis ar- en’t a “sacrifice.” In fact, CBS news says that northern Israel is full of ghost towns. “I believe Israel will try and figure out a military way to crush Hezbullah in the south of Lebanon, without sparking an all out war,” Ben David says. He has previously reminded me that, “Only by projecting power, can you lead to de-escalation.” The two concepts may be intrinsically bound, and even call to mind the Reagan era of American policy. Ben David also notes that the government seems to Israelis to be too focused on its own welfare, especially in regard to Haredi, or Ultra Orthodox, men and their exemption from military service. Recently, however, Israel’s High Court has struck down a law that grants Haredi men exemptions from serving in the army. This in fact opens up the draft to Haredi students. But the implications of the unanimous decision may go back to the founding of Israel in 1948, when the decision was solidified that the Haredi community would be exempt from mandatory military service if they were engaged in full-time Torah study. However, in time this arrangement with the government (coupled with Haredi reliance on government subsidies) has garnered resentment among non-Haredi Jews and has served as a political lightning rod. October 7 changed much of the emphasis from exemption of the Haredi, to the lack of manpower that challenges the IDF. Israeli men are required to serve three years in the military, followed by reserve duty, while Israeli women are required to serve two years. Israelis even regard this mandatory military service as a rite of passage. Some 63,000 Haredi men were exempt from military service until the ruling (the Haredi community constitutes 13% of the Israeli population). “This is a historic victory for the rule of law and the principle of equality in the burden of military service,” said the Movement for Quality Government in Israel. From Prime Minister Netanyahu’s perspective, the ruling is a serious threat to his government, which was already on shaky ground after October 7. Netanyahu has powerful ultra-Orthodox parties in his coalition who want the draft exemptions of the Haredi to continue, while members of the War Cabinet insist that all sectors of Israeli society contribute to the war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip. If the ultra-Orthodox par- ties leave the government in protest of the draft, Israel would have to have new elec- tions - with Netanyahu lack- ing support amid the war. Ben David says, “There is talk that Netanyahu hopes that Trump will be elected and then he will have a more friendly American president on his side - if the war with Lebanon starts…. “Our enemies are also aware of the window of time they have to operate before the American elections and consider what to do if Trump wins. They have between November and January to move with their plans; two months is a lot of time in the Middle East.” As I grasp for a way to understand how the enemies of Israel regard their window until the American election, I remember how NBA commentator Stephan A. Smith once said, “Nine seconds is an eternity in basketball.” Plays will be made before the election, and time-outs called. Speaking of the American elections, I began to think about how an Orthodox community may equate in Iowa, at least in Iowa history, and what may be understood from that in regard to the Ultra-Orthodox community in Israel. I learned from the Des Moines Register that a mainstream, modern Orthodox congregation called Beth El Jacob in Des Moines had shrunk so much that they decided to sell their building in 2016 (the congregation was once five times their 2016 size when it opened in 1957, though the congregation was founded much earlier, in 1885). The Des Moines Orthodox community was actually at its height in the early 60s, when there were up to 400 families attended Beth El Jacob. After Beth El Jacob closed, the nearest Orthodox synagogues were in Minneapolis, Omaha and Kansas City, however board member Martin Grund recognized the Jewish people as having sustained centuries of trouble before: “It is in our DNA — our resourcefulness and resil- ience.” The Des Moines Register describes Orthodox Judaism as a tradition instead of a religion. In addition, a small group of Lubavitch Jews, also called the ultra-Orthodox, has been in Des Moines for over 20 years, holding Shabbat ser- vices in the home of their rab- bi. Mark Finkelstein, community relations director of the Jewish Federation of Greater Des Moines, understands why Orthodox Judaism tends to concentrate in places like New York. “It’s easier to follow the stricter rules and traditions if you live in a neighborhood where most other people are doing the same,” he says. Having learned this, it’s much more easily understood why Israel meant to be the haven for Jews and the Jewish heritage.
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