Coalition and opposition parties slammed the Keshev Committee’s findings,
following committee chairman and Kadima MK Yohanan Plesner’s presentation on
Wednesday.
Opposition leader Shelly Yechimovich said that the committee
was tricking the public and was part of a “political puppet show that must end
immediately.”
“A press conference on a flight to Mars would be worth as
much,” she quipped on her Facebook page.
According to Yechimovich,
Plesner had good intentions and some of his recommendations are worthy, but they
are not legitimate due to the “cynical connection between Kadima and Likud,
which occurred only for reasons of political survival.”
The Labor leader
added that Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu had no intention of seriously
looking for a solution to inequality in the burden of IDF and national service
and was busy with political tricks.
“We must stop this theater of the
absurd and go to elections as soon as possible, which is what was supposed to
happen before Netanyahu and Mofaz’s political trick,” she
concluded.
Water and Energy Minister Uzi Landau said that the committee’s
choice not to deal with Arab enlistment brings “unequal equality.”
“It is
strange that the enlistment of haredim [the ultra-Orthodox], who make up 8
percent [of those who don’t serve], is obvious, while national service by Arabs,
who make up half of those who don’t serve, is seen as illegitimate,” Landau
stated.
The Yisrael Beytenu minister also pointed out that the number of
secular Jews who do not serve in the IDF is significantly higher than the number
of haredim.
“Everyone should learn these numbers,” Landau said. “Yisrael
Beytenu will oppose any partial recommendations and all attempts to soften the
blow, as Plesner and his friends did.”
Landau called for the Knesset not
to miss a “historic opportunity” to bring all Israeli citizens into “the army of
the people.”
MK Danny Danon (Likud) said that the Keshev Committee marked
Kadima’s end, because rather than seek to end inequality, Plesner was more
concerned with pleasing his party’s Arab voters.
“The people of Israel
are sick of seeing Arabs sit back while a small percentage of the population
carries the whole burden,” Danon stated. “All Israeli Arabs must do national
service.”
Meretz leader Zehava Gal-On called the report “Kadima’s swan
song,” saying that it was meant to “strengthen their pointless partnership with
Netanyahu.”
“Instead of proposing a bill to bring equality, the report is
meant to purify discrimination,” she stated. “Mofaz is a ‘paper tiger’ who
creates fake crises and threats to leave the coalition to keep Kadima
alive.”
Yesh Atid founder Yair Lapid accused Plesner of giving
“discounts” to different sectors in society, such as postponing haredi
enlistment to age 23 and thereby preventing equality.
“This is an
impractical outline that will prevent many from enlisting,” he said. “Expanding
the number of those who serve and requiring it of all 18-yearolds is necessary
in order to stop Israeli society from breaking apart.”
According to
Lapid, Netanyahu is responsible for creating equality, but instead he is “doing
everything to run away from making a decision and trying to fool the Israeli
public with tricks.”