Comments on: Getting real about solving the Haredi challenge

By: Paula Cohen

Paula Cohen — Wed, 27 Feb 2013 21:06:22 +0000

I'm not suprised their population increases, they contribute nothing to the state which supports them, a rightious person would help the sick & elderly.

By: Stan Silverman

Stan Silverman — Tue, 26 Feb 2013 21:53:26 +0000

The haredi society is not economically.

By: Daniel Goldman

Daniel Goldman — Tue, 26 Feb 2013 11:10:13 +0000

Many intelligent insights. The strategic aim is to integrate economically, whilst allowing maximum "cultural" independence. National service is a crucial but not exclusive part of the story. Am worried over the talk about setting the bar for national service at 21.

By: Michael Lipkin

Michael Lipkin — Tue, 26 Feb 2013 10:25:45 +0000

Alisa Fox Coleman, Dov Lipman Knesset, Daniel Goldman, Joel Alan Katz

By: Michael Lipkin

Michael Lipkin — Tue, 26 Feb 2013 10:14:50 +0000

A fair and cogent analysis which seems to broadly support Yesh Atid's idea of giving a 5 year amnesty so these people can get out and go to work.

By: Daniel Solomon Sayani

Daniel Solomon Sayani — Mon, 25 Feb 2013 15:35:26 +0000

Plenty of Haredim of Israeli extraction live in these places, either legally or illegally. And, how does a state or any other viable political entity sustain a fifth column in its midst? Granted, America is facing the same problem with different demographic groups. I strongly believe Kahane and Yisrael Beitenu were correct in understanding that loyalty and a unifying set of values are essential for the maintenance of the nation-state.

By: Eitan Levy

Eitan Levy — Mon, 25 Feb 2013 08:22:32 +0000

Two connected fallacies in your post. 1. You assume that they 'can' go live in those other places. At this point you are talking about hundreds of thousands of people, most of whom have no way to emigrate to the places you mention even if they wanted to. 2. The same would go for the million+ Arab Israelis!

By: Daniel Solomon Sayani

Daniel Solomon Sayani — Sun, 24 Feb 2013 06:33:28 +0000

I propose something more radical- does it make sense to have a state inhabited by people who have no loyalty to its fundamental principles? Israel was founded as a free society, not a theocracy, and certainly not as a Polish or Lithuanian shtetl. Bring back the idea of a loyalty oath, that includes army service as a provision, and if they refuse, they can go live on Park Heights Avenue in Pikesville or in Golders Green or on Avenue M in Flatbush.

By: Daniel Solomon Sayani

Daniel Solomon Sayani — Sun, 24 Feb 2013 06:33:28 +0000

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Sat, 23 Feb 2013 20:05:55 +0000

This is a must read article for anyone who is trying to grapple with the Haredi challenge. As one who sees equal burden sharing as a high value along with economic participation and an end to religious coercion, I still think the authors raise some provocative points about how hard this is to achieve. Israel often seems to be a test-bed for the law of unintended consequences and I wonder if we shouldn't be cautious about repeating past mistakes and pushing too hard without thinking it through. I'm glad there are finally political parties with the courage to force this debate. In the long term, a successful formula will take compromises from everyone, even those who don't see any reason to compromise now. It doesn't pay to win the battle but lose the war.

By: Viola Briatková

Viola Briatková — Sat, 23 Feb 2013 15:48:38 +0000

why? 3 years should be enough.

By: Viola Briatková

Viola Briatková — Sat, 23 Feb 2013 15:47:27 +0000

one wonders, why those Yemeni Jews are making Aliya – all those terrible drafts etc. why they did not stayed in Yemen? ok, pogrom…ah, can you send all Mea Sharim in exchange:)

By: Viola Briatková

Viola Briatková — Sat, 23 Feb 2013 15:46:22 +0000

there is another possibility:) – all haredis can leave Israel – they may try Gaza or West bank, for example, or maybe Jordan:). then the problem with draft male or female dissappear, and just two little different problems – jizyia and sometimes pogroms. yeah, I think they should try it – they will leave this terrible sionist secular entity named Israel (pun intended). women should be not coerced – life is just another name for coercion. you are coerced to eat with a spoon, to go to school, to work, to pay taxes – get over it, this is called life.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Sat, 23 Feb 2013 15:41:15 +0000

Wow, its like none of the talk-backers even read this article.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Sat, 23 Feb 2013 06:26:58 +0000

Women should not pay the price for milennial malist coercion, unless they really want to be drafted. And that should not be subject to coercion by Haredi men, who want their women cooking and rearing children, working or doing everything like and octopus, while their dive into the labyrinths of Tractate Baba Kama.