
Former Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked has urged the haredi community to enlist in the IDF and contribute to the war effort.
Speaking at the 21st Jerusalem Conference, she said, "We are not managing to enlist haredim through discourse - it just isn't working. I spoke with some of the leaders of the haredi community and suggested that they found hesder yeshivas. Because they also know that a significant portion of the yeshiva students do not really study day and night. Unfortunately, they responded in the negative. This is something that the State needs to insist on. It cannot be that during a time of war, the haredim do not serve."
"There needs to be a change in this situation. All these years, we spoke about discourse. Years have passed since we legislated the Draft Law in 2014, and nothing has happened."
Regarding the way Israel is managing the war, Shaked said, "I think the IDF is operating in an exceptional fashion. Military delegations come here from around the world. I visited Tel Hashomer and saw how the soldiers are ready to sacrifice their lives. I think that [Hamas leader Yahya] Sinwar did not properly estimate the power of the Jewish nation - and we will beat them."
"October 7 was obviously a colossal failure of all the systems. We failed in evaluation, deterrence, and protection. We saw that with the 'fully right-wing government' the Arabs 'fully embarrassed us,' and really, October 7 is the blackest day for the Jewish nation since the Holocaust. Afterwards the IDF and the political echelon recovered, there is a battle which is a good battle. You ask if we could have done differently? Yes. I think that passing fuel and humanitarian aid to Gaza is the mother of all sins."
In her opinion, Israel should use the opportunity to deal with UNRWA as well: "The government of Israel has a historic opportunity to once and for all close this organization, both because it supports terror and because it eternalizes the refugees. If this government does not take advantage of this, it will be an enormous shame."