Bills Meant to Appease the Haredim Won't End Sanctions, but Could Damage the Economy

Two bills promoted by the coalition to compensate the Haredim for the fact that the draft-dodging law is stalled, a Basic Law, Torah Study, and the Day Care Centers Law. Today it became clear that neither is expected to stop the sanctions against draft dodgers. On the other hand, they could cause heavy damage to the economy. What do the two bills actually do? They allow Netanyahu to buy time and hold elections in October.

In theory, the Haredim have left the government, Shas, and the coalition, United Torah Judaism. Degel HaTorah rabbis even made clear that there is no longer a Netanyahu bloc. But in the end, it turns out there is no stronger trait of the Haredi parties than that they are Netanyahu's obedient followers until the very last moment.

Today the Finance Committee approved, after two emergency meetings, the Day Care Centers Law for first reading. The law says that admission to day care centers will take into account only the mother's employment. The law was drafted in the first days of the sanctions against draft dodgers, when the legal situation was entirely different. It is so typical of this coalition that the law has been making its way for two years and no one stopped to check whether it is still achieving its purpose, restoring the day care subsidy to yeshiva students who evade military service.

Yesterday, Deputy Attorney General Gil Limon came and explained to the Finance Committee that it makes no difference at all. Whether or not the father's status is taken into account in admission to a day care center, the law and High Court rulings require denying a subsidy to a family of a draft dodger. Limon did not address the question of whether the law could be struck down by the High Court. He made clear that the law has many legal problems that could lead to its invalidation by the High Court. But his statement was that as far as subsidies for draft dodgers are concerned, the current version of the Day Care Centers Law simply changes nothing. Therefore, even if it passes, the attorney general will instruct the Labor Ministry to continue requiring that military status be resolved as a condition for the day care subsidy.

MK Uri Maklev of United Torah Judaism demanded at today's Finance Committee meeting that a clause be added to restore the subsidy for draft dodgers. But if, after first reading, the Haredim insist on adding such a clause, Religious Zionism and some of the Likud MKs will have difficulty voting for it. If they do not insist on it, they have gained nothing. It is just another exercise in deceiving their public, whom they have been stringing along for two years with legislative promises in order to allow Netanyahu's government to continue existing.

The Basic Law, Torah Study has two parts. One states that Torah study is a fundamental value in the heritage of the Jewish people and the State of Israel as a Jewish state that sees supreme importance in encouraging Torah study and Torah scholars. The second says that, for the purpose of their rights and obligations, those who have undertaken to devote themselves to Torah study for a long period will be regarded as providing significant service to the State of Israel and the Jewish people.

Even if the law does not stop the sanctions against draft dodgers, it could in the future be used to justify unreasonable benefits for yeshiva students and kollel students and allow them to avoid the labor market. Today, Religious Zionism figures made clear that they have no problem voting for a law that says Torah study is important, but they will not vote for a law that equates the rights of yeshiva students with the rights of those who serve. As a result, the Ministerial Committee on Legislation decided that the rights clause will be removed from the law between the preliminary reading and the first reading. In any case, as things stand now, this law too will not stop the sanctions on yeshiva students.

But even if the two laws do not help draft dodgers, that does not mean they will not cause heavy economic damage. The Budget Department's opinion stated that the direct cost of the Day Care Centers Law is 300 million shekels, of which 200 million shekels would restore the subsidies to draft dodgers and 100 million shekels would go to additional families that would be eligible for the subsidy even though the father does not work. Limon's opinion cancels only the first 200 million shekels. Beyond that, the expected damage to the economy is dozens of times greater than the cost of the subsidies. The gap between the average employment rate of men in the OECD and in Israel has widened over the past decade from 3 percent to 8 percent. A bill that would exempt men from working in order to receive day care for their children could lower the employment rate even further and, as a result, seriously harm GDP.

Without equal terms for those who serve, the Basic Law, Torah Study also does not help draft dodgers. In the end, nothing prevents them from both studying Torah and serving. Still, enshrining Torah study as a value in the constitution, when even equality is not there, could have far-reaching implications. First, it trivializes the constitution and uses it to entrench unequal values such as benefits for yeshiva students. Second, even if the law cannot stop the sanctions against draft dodgers, it can certainly in the future be used to justify unreasonable benefits for yeshiva and kollel students, the kind that allow them not to work and to evade the labor market. The problem is that once the law passes, it will be very difficult to remove, because that will be interpreted as a vote against Torah study.

In the coalition today, there was a competition in statements over who inserted into the Day Care Centers Law the clause saying that reserve soldiers will receive priority in admission to day care. However, financially, this clause has very limited significance. That is because in the existing subsidy table, when both spouses work and earn income, their chance of receiving a significant day care subsidy is very small. In effect, the coalition is not only working on the Haredi public, but also on reserve soldiers. Anyone who wants to grant them real benefits needs to establish a separate subsidy table for them.