“If Defense Minister Ehud Barak continues to fight the hesder yeshivas, they will have to import soldiers from Turkey,” National Union Chairman MK Yaakov Katz (Ketzaleh) quipped in a speech before the Knesset plenum Tuesday. The sarcastic reference was to the importation of water from Turkey which the government decided upon because of the current water shortage.
Minister of Interior Eli Yishai (Shas) wrote a letter to Defense Minister Ehud Barak Tuesday in which he asked him not to cut ties between the IDF and the 'hesder' yeshivas.
"I am turning to you in the name of the essential need to safeguard and maintain the delicate social fabric in the State of Israel,” he wrote. “I am greatly concerned, in the past few days, over the crisis of trust that has developed between the IDF and the hesder yeshivas. The goal of my request is the will to prevent any cutting of ties between the IDF and the hesder yeshivas.”
"It would be superfluous to tell you that the soldiers of the hesder and the pre-military academies can be found in all of the IDF's fighting units and that they are always ready to heed any military call and to carry out any mission without asking questions. They do all this with the support of their rabbis and in accordance with their spiritual guidance.”
"Only recently, in the Second Lebanon War and Operation Cast Lead, we saw their tenacity at missions of war. We were astounded to see soldiers who had literally just left their wedding chuppas, and our hearts ached with the families of the fallen soldiers who joined the family of the bereaved.”
"Our mission, as representatives of the public, and yours – as the person in charge of the defense establishment – is not to burn down the bridge to a population of quality soldiers whose sole wish is to continue to contribute to the state of Israel. [We should] minimize all controversy through a dialogue between representatives of the IDF and representatives of the rabbis.”