STOP SILENCE - SILENCE KILLS

Kadima would leave the Israeli government if not the ultra-Orthodox recruits

The leader of Kadima, Shaul Mofaz, has threatened on Wednesday to quit the coalition government of Israel if Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, does not accept the recommendations of a committee on the participation of ultra-Orthodox Jews and Arabs in the national military or civil.

Plesner Committee, chaired by Deputy Yohanan Plesner (Kadima), was formed to draft a law that would require Israeli Arabs and ultra-Orthodox Jews do military service or, alternatively, the national civil service. But Netanyahu dissolved the committee on Monday over the protests of religious leaders.

The committee has determined that, by 2016, nearly 80 percent of ultra-Orthodox Jews who reach the age of recruitment must perform national military service, which will last two years, or civil, which will last for 18 months.

Those opposed will be punished with fines or even imprisonment. In addition, the ultra-Orthodox rebellious lose the benefits they enjoy in the tax area and access to housing and scholarships, according to the committee.

In addition, over 22 years shall not postpone the time of service, except a group of 1,500 seminarians each year (currently 50,000), the service period may be extended to meet recruitment goals and you can not reduce the period minimum.

Mofaz said during a Kadima meeting that the Committee's report Plesner "is the result of the first big test" of the association of his party and the Likud, the party headed by the Executive.

"I hope the Prime Minister take the decision of the committee. It is our condition for remaining in office. The ball is in your court, and a matter of days," warned Mofaz, according to Haaretz.

Mofaz said that Netanyahu broke the agreement of the coalition government to dissolve the committee, which, nevertheless, has published its recommendations on Wednesday. Kadima is the largest party in Israel and the Israeli Government and covers 28 of the 120 seats in Parliament. The Likud has 27 seats, and 16 are held by religious parties.

Minister of Housing and ultra-Orthodox Shas party member, Ariel Attias, told Israel Radio that the plan proposed by the committee is "unenforceable", especially as regards fines for rebellious seminarians.

You need a new law

We need a new law because the Supreme Court declared unconstitutional the rule that currently governs the system of exemptions for ultra-Orthodox Jews and Israeli Arabs, whose term ends on August 1. Kadima agreed to join the Government last May with the condition that they draft an alternative law.

As for the recruitment of Israeli Arabs, the Yisrael Beiteinu party chairman and foreign minister, Avigdor Lieberman, has asked that all who reach draft age - about 30,000 - perform national service.

Plesner The Committee has indicated that the principle that all citizens must perform the service should be applied both to Arab Israelis and Jewish Israelis, and calls for tripling over the next five years the number of Arabs who perform military service (currently about 2,400).