A day after a Knesset committee advanced a bill that will effectively freeze ultra-Orthodox enlistment to the military for seven months, IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir on Monday issued a harsh letter calling the proposal “clearly and unequivocally inconsistent with the IDF’s needs.”

Addressing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Defense Minister Israel Katz, and Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee chair Likud MK Boaz Bismuth, Zamir wrote that the proposed mechanism, under which IDF officers would approve the status of yeshiva students in order to grant them immunity from arrest for draft evasion, “undermines the legitimacy of and trust among those who serve.”

“It is inconceivable that the military system under my command, which demands unprecedented sacrifice from its personnel, would be party to granting mass exemptions from prosecution,” wrote Zamir, who has repeatedly warned that the army needs more troops.

He added that “such a move would create a deep rift with the serving force, which has borne the burden of the fighting for two and a half years, and would increase inequality.”

“The bill is not expected to result in an increase in military personnel in the immediate term and provides an incentive for not reporting for military service,” he lamented.

Zamir noted that the bill comes at a time when the army is facing “an unusual gap in manpower, which directly affects the ability to meet operational missions.”

The Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee on Sunday approved the bill for a final reading. Among its provisions is the establishment of a three-member panel of IDF officers who will review each of the exemption requests by ultra-Orthodox community members, known as Haredim.

The temporary immunity bill was set to be brought for its back-to-back second and third readings in the Knesset plenum later Monday. It is one component of an agreement between the ultra-Orthodox parties and Netanyahu to preserve ultra-Orthodox support for key coalition bills being pushed through the Knesset before it is dissolved and elections are called at the end of this........

© The Times of Israel