Thank you for such a misleading and fraudulent article. You have shown the lengths to which those opposing equal responsibility for all citizens of Israel are willing to go to prevent an equal distribution of those responsibilities.

Nowhere is there the condition that ONLY military service is acceptable. Both the Haredi and Arab sectors were given the option of Sherut Leumi, which would benefit their own sectors first and foremost. What possible objection could someone of Sherut Leumi age have to helping disadvantaged students with learning disabilities, assisting the handicapped with shopping, errands, etc. The response? The Haredi rabbis threatened a civil war against the secular and the Arab sector's politicians screamed "discrimination" to anyone who would listen.

Why has the word “duty” turned into an obscenity? Why is it wrong to demand equal responsibility from all citizens? Those same citizens know quite well how to demand equal rights, but along with equal rights come equal responsibilities. No matter how you try to separate rights from responsibilities, it doesn’t work.

What you’re trying to do is justify the granting of equal (or, given the absence of responsibilities fulfilled or even demanded, preferential) rights to certain sectors of the population, which is unacceptable to those of us who do bear the burden of those responsibilities.

Kindly try to conceive of some manner in which ALL sectors of Israel’s population share the burden of those duties in a more egalitarian distribution.

Sincerely,
M. Davison

Thank you for such a misleading and fraudulent article. You have shown the lengths to which those opposing equal responsibility for all citizens of Israel are willing to go to prevent an equal distribution of those responsibilities.

Nowhere is there the condition that ONLY military service is acceptable. Both the Haredi and Arab sectors were given the option of Sherut Leumi, which would benefit their own sectors first and foremost. What possible objection could someone of Sherut Leumi age have to helping disadvantaged students with learning disabilities, assisting the handicapped with shopping, errands, etc. The response? The Haredi rabbis threatened a civil war against the secular and the Arab sector's politicians screamed "discrimination" to anyone who would listen.

Why has the word “duty” turned into an obscenity? Why is it wrong to demand equal responsibility from all citizens? Those same citizens know quite well how to demand equal rights, but along with equal rights come equal responsibilities. No matter how you try to separate rights from responsibilities, it doesn’t work.

What you’re trying to do is justify the granting of equal (or, given the absence of responsibilities fulfilled or even demanded, preferential) rights to certain sectors of the population, which is unacceptable to those of us who do bear the burden of those responsibilities.

Kindly try to conceive of some manner in which ALL sectors of Israel’s population share the burden of those duties in a more egalitarian distribution.

Sincerely,
M. Davison

The author is merely trying to protect the Arab Israeli population from military conscription or civil service. She conveniently uses the secular public's issues with the haredi sector as a mask for her real aims – which is to exempt the Arab Israeli population from sharing the common burden of responsibility.

Bottom line, with a few hundred exemptions for exceptional students, haredim will join the IDF or civil service and integrate into the economy. If you follow the trends within the community then you know this is where things are headed anyway.

The real question is whether the Arab Israeli population is truly ready to integrate, and be integrated and accepted by the Israeli Jewish majority culture. This may mean ending the autonomy the Arab sector has in its own education system, among other tripwires to integration.