The headlines of the haredi newspapers cried out on Wednesday against the High Court’s ruling calling on the state to immediately recruit all haredim into the IDF.
The headline in Hamevaser, a newspaper affiliated with Minister Meir Porush, reads: "There is a serious danger to the future of the state, if we lose our central anchor of survival against those who seek to harm us."
Yated Ne’eman, affiliated with Degel HaTorah, writes: "The High Court judges called out 'in one voice' against many generations of pure Torah learning. They have destroyed the Beit Midrash."
Hamodis, affiliated with Minister Yitzhak Goldknopf, writes: "The High Court has broken the status quo and declared war on the world of Torah."
Hapeles, affiliated with the Jerusalem Faction, wrote: "The war to uproot Judaism through a ruling of persecution has reached a new high."
Ministers and haredi Knesset members responded yesterday to a ruling that would require the state to recruit yeshiva students and freeze budgets for haredi institutions.
Minister of Construction and Housing Yitzhak Goldknopf responded: "An expected and very regrettable and disappointing decision. The State of Israel was established to be a home for the Jewish people and the Torah is the bedrock of its existence. The Holy Torah will overcome."
MK Israel Eichler: "The High Court is a dictatorial body that seized power from the elected government and the democratic authorities and seeks to impose a religious war on the streets and cause a rift between Jews. It will not succeed. We will continue to hold on to the tradition of our forefathers, even if dictators who rule as they deem fit are plotting to uproot it all. The High Court ruling is not nine judges against zero. It is nine judges against 3500 years of study from receiving the Torah to this day."
Shas Chairman Aryeh Deri responded: "The Jewish people survived persecutions, pogroms and wars only thanks to the preservation of their unique possessions – the Torah and the mitzvot. This is our secret weapon against all enemies, as promised by the Creator of the World. Even here, in the Jewish state, alongside our dear soldiers who risk their lives in the face of our enemies, we will continue to guard all Torah scholars who fight to uphold Torah learning. They are the ones who are protecting our strength and bringing about miracles on the battlefield. There is no power in the world that can cut off the Jewish People from Torah study. Whoever tried this in the past failed miserably. No arbitrary ruling will cancel out Torah Learners in the Land of Israel, which is what is upholding us all."
Minister of Jerusalem and Israel's Tradition Meir Porush: "The High Court ruling inevitably leads to two states here. One, is the country that is being run as it is now. The other country is the one where Torah students will continue to study Torah as they used to in the country that Ben-Gurion declared. There is no power in the world that can force a person whose soul longs to study Torah, to refrain from it."