“Tal Law Brouhaha No Need to Panic” read the front-page headline in one of the major chareidi journals two weeks ago. That piece by a veteran and very astute analyst reflected the widespread consensus in the chareidi world: The threats of Israeli politicians to draft yeshivah students would come to nothing. We’ve heard the threats before and nothing ever came of them.
The former Soviet Union could fall; the European Union could teeter on the brink of collapse; General Motors of which it was once said “What’s good for General Motors is good for America” could require a massive government bailout to survive; the United States could lose its Triple-A rating; companies that once dominated their respective industries could simply disappear when the products they manufactured for decades became obsolete — anyone remember typewriters? But one thing would remain constant in this fast-changing world we assured ourselves: Israeli coalition governments would always require the chareidi parties to remain in power.
Never would the largest Israeli parties succeed in forming a coalition to trim the sails of the multiplicity of smaller parties which are the bane of every prime minister’s existence. Even when little divides the major parties ideologically personal animosity would save the day. Isn’t that what has always happened in the past as when Kadima’s Tzippi Livni refused to join a Likud-led coalition after the last elections unless Binyamin Netanyahu agreed to a rotation of the prime ministership?
One who did not fall prey to the illusion that nothing would ever change was Rav Aharon Leib Steinman who early last week called upon the entire chareidi world to shed its complacency and to increase its tefillos on behalf of the bnei yeshivah.
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