"Anyone with eyes in his head knows that you can't tamper with full-time Torah scholars. In the end, there won't be any change in legislation and at worst, yeshiva students will sit in jail."
Since elections will be held September 4, the Knesset Legal Advisor announced that the law governing the draft deferment of yeshiva students will be automatically extended until the end of December, three months after the new Knesset meets.
This was the declaration of Rabbi Moshe Gafni in a discussion held by the Foreign and Defense subcommittee headed by MK Yochanan Plasner (Kadima). This committee has been holding hearings for the past two years on the subject of army deferment for those yeshiva students not in the work force, and the operating legislative arrangement which was recently invalidated by the Supreme High Court. The committee members arrived at various conclusions and the hearing on Tuesday dealt with the question whether to present the conclusions publicly and if so, in what form and manner.
Rabbi Gafni addressed the conclusions and said that there was no point in preparing a report supporting the annulment of the law or of one of its alternatives since "before the committee even fully formulated its decisions, the various political parties have already presented alternative bills."
