Yair Lapid - Thoughtless & Clueless Part 2

I may be picking on Lapid a bit. But he is representative of this new wave of center-left Israeli politicians who are mistakenly driving Israel to sectionalism  nativism, and ultimately civil war. Lapid's compromise on Army service is the Ultra-Orthodox dream.

Right now, Israeli-Arabs and Ultra-Orthodox Jews army deferrals exist outside of the law. The Israeli supreme court deemed racial/ unequal deferrals to be illegal.

Lapid has a grand compromise - create an national service track for these groups of citizens and keep them separate from the main.

His faulty logic is that by keeping these groups separate it will magically lead to their integration.

What he seems to not comprehend, is that if his compromise is agreed upon, it will codify and enshrine in law the lack of army service for the ultra orthodox and Israeli arabs.

I have 2 children. My religious brother has 8. It appears, based on the current trend and systems and compromises,  likely that my 2 children will do the army while my brother's 8 will do national service.
It may not work out like that, but it's an example of what happens daily in Israel. One group's children goes to the army, others do not.

I don't want that discrimination enshrined in law.

And I don't want the Arabs and Haredi citizens of Israel to be classed as 'other' to be enshrined in law.

Think of popular sovereignty in the US, think of Dredd Scott, think of of all the compromises that ultimately enshrined slavery legally until only a civil war could reset the legal clock.

Lapid's compromise is the express train to civil war in 50 years.

Compromising on discrimination is no compromise at all.

Why Yair Lapid Disgusts Me

The USA has a long history of compromising with discrimination. They compromised on issues of slavery - The Missouri Compromise of 1820 - when the North and South agreed that states below the Missouri line would remain slave states and those above would be free. The compromise of 1850 - doing away with the line and replacing it with popular sovereignty - allowing new territories to vote on slavery when becoming a state. Even the great emancipator - Abraham Lincoln - did not run on an abolitionist - anti-slavery - message. He wanted to prevent the spread of slavery to any new territory but he ran on the campaign that he would not touch slavery in the south - a compromise which the South rejected in favor of secession.

Immigrants - Women - Homosexuals - America is littered with the corpses of compromise. Finally Finally, The US is approaching the time when discrimination and racism may be stricken from it's laws.

And in Israel the parties that claim the center -left, like Yair Lapid, want to continue the tradition of compromise.

Compromising on discrimination is not a compromise.

He claims that his plan is a reasonable compromise: that in 5 years the Israeli ultra -orthodox and Israeli Arabs will begin reporting to the IDF at which point the IDF will decide if the conscripts must serve in the army or  do some form of public service.

Hey Lapid - if public service is the same thing then have the Harediim and Arabs do the army and let the seculars do public service!

For reasons to numerous to get into, everyone winks and smirks at the idea of public service; joke of a program.

Lapid wants this compromised form of equality of service, but what about life equality? Civil Marriage? Gay civil marriage? Civil divorce? Public Transportation on Shabbat? You can't be a little bit pregnant and you can't accept just a little discrimination.

I admire the Ultra-orthodox parties, they have their issues and they fight for them with focus and determination. Lapid is fighting to be the next Stephen Douglas: the man whose great compromises won him the senate debates against Lincoln, but lost him the presidency.