At least they won't be wiped away, and it will be by their own hand.
"Israeli reservists rally against draft exemptions" Associated Press, July 08, 2012
JERUSALEM — Thousands of Israeli reservists and their supporters rallied in Tel Aviv on Saturday to protest draft exemptions for ultra-Orthodox Jews. Many of the marchers carried placards reading ‘‘everybody serves.’’
Tens of thousands of ultra-Orthodox Jews are exempt from compulsory military service. Israel’s Supreme Court recently ruled the current exemption system illegal, and the government is scrambling to come up with an alternative.
The country’s secular majority considers the mass exemptions unjust, while the ultra-Orthodox claim they are serving the state by serving God.
See: Zionist Guilt Trip
The issue is one of the most charged in the country, and has caused a serious rift in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition government.
Under the current military draft law, secular males must perform three years of compulsory service when they turn 18. Ultra-Orthodox men have special exemptions that allow them to study in their isolated enclaves while collecting government subsidies.
The Supreme Court gave the government until Aug. 1 to figure out a new, fairer system. That is proving far more difficult than expected.
Last week, the deep divisions between religious and secular parties in Netanyahu’s coalition government led to the collapse of a special committee formed to draft new legislation. Netanyahu’s largest governing partner, the centrist Kadima Party, is now threatening to quit the government....
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"Benjamin Netanyahu to reduce national draft exemptions" July 09, 2012
JERUSALEM — Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed Sunday to increase significantly the number of ultra-Orthodox Jews and Arab citizens who serve in Israel’s military or civilian volunteer corps, an effort that he hoped would quiet an outraged public and save his broad unity coalition government.
A week after disbanding a committee he had appointed to address the issue of draft exemptions, Netanyahu embraced the committee’s core ideas. He appointed its chairman, a member of Parliament from the centrist Kadima Party, and one of the top ministers from his more conservative Likud Party to work out the details of a new conscription law.
The goal is to have the Cabinet approve the legislation by next Sunday so Parliament can act on it before an Aug. 1 deadline to replace the existing law that exempts thousands of yeshiva students from serving in the military. That law was struck down by the Supreme Court in February.
The issue has fueled resentment over how national burdens are shared and has exposed social divisions.
“We are citizens of one state, and we must all participate in bearing the burden of service to the state,’’ Netanyahu said Sunday at the start of his Cabinet meeting, according to a statement released by his office.
The prime minister called for ‘‘historic change’’ and promised incentives for those who serve and sanctions against those who do not.
The move came hours after a protest in Tel Aviv on Saturday that drew about 20,000 people demanding a broader military draft and the resignation of several politicians. It also followed a week of political turmoil in which several important members of Netanyahu’s coalition threatened to quit over the issue. For now, the political crisis seems to have been contained.
For about two days.
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And in-between now and then:
"Israel panel backs legalizing West Bank outposts" by Amy Teibel | Associated Press, July 10, 2012
JERUSALEM — A government-commissioned report released Monday has recommended that Israel legalize dozens of unsanctioned West Bank settlement outposts, a move that would defy international opposition to settling land Palestinians want for a future state.
The report, written by a committee sympathetic to settlers, also reaffirmed Israel’s longstanding position, at odds with most of the world, that the West Bank is not occupied territory, and therefore Israel has the legal right to settle it.
If endorsed by the government, the recommendations could give Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ammunition to support new settlement activity and fend off pressure from a Supreme Court that has ordered Israel to take action against the existing outposts.
Netanyahu welcomed the panel’s work and said he would bring its conclusions to a special forum that would decide whether to adopt them....
The outposts are unsanctioned enclaves that Jewish settlers began erecting in the 1990s to sidestep Israel’s commitment to stop building new settlements. There are dozens of outposts, in addition to about 120 full-fledged settlements.
Of Israel’s population of nearly 8 million, about 500,000 now live in the West Bank and east Jerusalem, areas claimed by the Palestinians for a future state. The Palestinians and the international community consider the settlements illegitimate and obstacles to peace.
Palestinian spokesman Ghassan Khatib immediately denounced the report’s conclusions.
‘‘This is in complete contradiction with international law and with specific resolutions of the United Nations . . . and in contradiction with the official policy of almost every single country in the world,’’ Khatib said....
Netanyahu set up the committee in January to examine land use issues in the West Bank after concluding that a 2005 report on unauthorized settlement outposts was tainted by leftist bias.
The author of that report, which had been commissioned by then-Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, a staunch settlement champion, was a former state prosecutor who ran for parliament on the dovish Meretz Party’s ticket after leaving the civil service.
The new committee was headed by former Supreme Court justice Edmond Levy, who opposed Israel’s 2005 Gaza Strip withdrawal. It was considered sympathetic to setters and was expected to issue the recommendation to legalize outposts.
The report made public Monday proposed that procedures be streamlined to legalize the outposts and allow for new settlement construction.
Committee member Alan Baker, a former legal adviser to the Foreign Ministry who is now a fellow at a conservative think tank, said the outposts were not authorized only because of international pressure and urged their approval.
‘‘Nothing here was inherently illegal,’’ he said.
The committee has also proposed that Israelis and Palestinians be given no more than five years to register land they say they own. After that time, no one will be able to claim ownership.
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Related: Memory Hole: Future Vision of Israel
It's the only solution to the Jewish question.
"Court clears Olmert of 2 of 3 charges" By ARON HELLER | Associated Press, July 11, 2012
JERUSALEM — An Israeli court cleared Ehud Olmert, the former prime minister, on Tuesday of the central charges in a corruption trial that forced him from power but convicted him of a lesser charge of breach of trust.
The verdict was seen as a major victory for Olmert, who stepped down as prime minister in 2009 to battle allegations that included accepting cash-stuffed envelopes from a supporter and pocketing the proceeds from a double-billing scam on overseas travel.
Ever notice Jewish criminals nearly always get away with their crimes?
Also see: Olmert the Thief
He double-billed who?
His conviction on the lesser charge made him the first former Israeli prime minister ever convicted of a crime.
Thank Jehovah for small things.
Beating the main charges could significantly rehabilitate Olmert’s public standing and raise questions of whether an overzealous prosecution hounded him from office....
How gross.
For now, a return to politics for the 66-year-old Olmert appears unlikely.
Casually dressed in a blue button-down shirt, Olmert appeared calm and relieved as the verdict was delivered in the Jerusalem district court. As he left the courtroom, the former prime minister had a wide smile and kissed defense lawyers and advisers.
The verdict, which capped a two-year trial, covered three separate allegations: illegally accepting funds from an American supporter, Morris Talansky; double-billing Jewish groups for trips abroad; and channeling state grants to companies linked to a close friend. He was acquitted in the first two cases and found guilty in the last.
They were HOLOCAUST and DISABLED CHILDREN'S GROUPS, guys!
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"Militance rises among Israeli settlers" by KARIN LAUB | Associated Press, July 12, 2012
Related: Zionists Continue Rampage in Palestine
For over 60 years now.
RAMALLAH, West Bank — Militant Israeli settlers in the West Bank have intensified attacks on Palestinians in recent years, human rights groups and UN agencies said Wednesday, contending a lack of Israeli law enforcement has created a climate of impunity.
The Israeli government has not shown the political will to protect Palestinian civilians and has failed to commit sufficient resources to the job, said Jessica Montell of the Israeli human rights group B’Tselem.
Montell and others told a news conference that settler violence against Palestinians is not random.
They said settler vigilantes hope to drive Palestinians from areas they want to take over, or carry out attacks to deter the Israeli military from taking any action against settlements.
Extremist settlers embarked on a campaign called ‘‘price tag’’ in 2008, retaliating for any army action against settlers or rogue outposts by attacking Palestinians and their property.
And terrorism works because the zettlers usually get whatever they want.
Militant settlers have been emboldened by the lack of punishment, Montell said. ‘‘You have increased motivation by settlers to be attacking Palestinians,’’ she said. ‘‘There is no priority given to protecting Palestinians from militant settlers.’’
They never even make an arrest.
Mark Regev, an Israeli government spokesman, denied that Israel is failing its obligation, as occupier of the West Bank, to protect the more than 2 million Palestinians living there.
‘‘We will pursue all complaints very seriously,’’ he said, adding that the prime minister has instructed police to deal aggressively with vigilantes.
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Back to that breeze blowing trough Israel:
"Draft dispute roils Israeli government; Moderate party quits coalition with Netanyahu" by Josef Federman | Associated Press, July 18, 2012
JERUSALEM — Israel plunged toward a political crisis Tuesday after the largest party in the government quit, leaving Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in charge of a hard-line coalition opposed to most Mideast peace moves.
The moderate Kadima party voted to pull out of the government in a feud over attempts to change the country’s military draft to include ultra-Orthodox Jews. The move, just two months after Kadima joined the coalition, appeared to push the country closer to early elections, a scenario that would paralyze Mideast diplomacy for months.
Word on the blogs is Kadima pulled out because they don't want to be implicated in the Iran attack.
Even if Netanyahu manages to hold the truncated coalition together, the sudden crisis has broader implications for Mideast peace, leaving him in charge of a narrow parliamentary majority dominated by religious and nationalist hard-liners who oppose concessions to the Palestinians.
Kadima leader Shaul Mofaz brought the party into the coalition to work with Netanyahu on ending a contentious, decades-old system that has granted draft exemptions to tens of thousands of ultra-Orthodox Jewish seminary students. But with a court-ordered Aug. 1 deadline to revise the law, the sides were unable to forge a compromise.
‘‘We made a real effort to push toward a new law that would change the balance of service,’’ said Mofaz, a former military chief of staff.
Mofaz said he tried to forge a ‘‘new social contract,’’ but was presented with ‘‘red lines’’ that could not be crossed. ‘‘We are going back with our heads held high to lead the nation in the opposition,’’ he declared.
Kadima is the largest party in Israel’s Parliament, winning one more seat than Netanyahu’s Likud party in the last election, but it was left outside the government when Netanyahu set up his original hard-line team three years ago.
The draft exemptions have caused widespread resentment among Israel’s secular majority, who are required to perform two to three years of compulsory service. Ultra-Orthodox leaders have been equally adamant in their refusal to compromise, contending that their young men serve the nation through prayer and study.
Honestly, I really don't care which crop of Zionist Jew war criminals are pulling the levers.
Netanyahu had sought a system that would gradually draft growing numbers of ultra-Orthodox over several years and continue the exemptions for a smaller number of them. Mofaz wanted fewer exemptions and wanted the ultrareligious to be incorporated much faster. The talks were complicated by calls for Israel’s Arab minority, who are also exempt from the draft, to be forced into civilian national service....
That's because Israel doesn't trust any Arab, even their own.
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