IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir has issued a sharply worded warning against legislation that would effectively freeze the enlistment of Chareidi yeshiva students for seven months, saying the proposal is “clearly and unequivocally inconsistent with the IDF’s needs.”

The letter, addressed to Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, Defense Minister Yisrael Katz, and Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee Chairman MK Boaz Bismuth, came after the committee approved the bill for its final Knesset readings. Under the proposed mechanism, IDF officers would approve the status of yeshiva students, granting them immunity from arrest for draft evasion during the seven-month period.

“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,” Zamir wrote.

The IDF chief warned that the proposal would undermine the legitimacy of and trust among those who serve, create a deep rift with soldiers who have carried the burden of more than two and a half years of fighting, and further increase inequality.

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)