Allow us to refresh some quick history from an excerpt of a booklet which appeared in 5719, when the question of establishing a 'religious front' prior to elections would have united all of the religious and chareidi parties into one list. It was written by a follower of the Brisker Rov and expressed the latter's view on certain subjects.
A visitor to the Rav's house at the time was given a pile of these pamphlets to distribute at a gathering which he was about to attend. It was written dozens of years ago and reflected the views of the national religious devotees who had always been against those who studied Torah purely and exclusively. All of those devotees who present excuses and arguments determining that this present war behooves a draft of yeshiva students are false and fabricated and have no connection to the war itself and to the painful fact that many of the fallen soldiers belong to that camp. They have always been against the holy yeshivos, even when the latter were a puny marginal minority — numerically, of course.
Here, then, is an excerpt therefrom: "The sacred yeshivos are a basic foundation for the existence of the Torah which we are commanded to preserve at all costs lest it come to harm. And along come the people of the Mizrachi who are known for their opposition, and we can even go as far as to say: their hatred of the yeshivos.
"We are not prepared here to elaborate on all they have done and continue to do to thwart the existence of the yeshivos. Let us just mention that they are categorically against exempting from army service those yeshiva students who pursue Torah study exclusively. If it were up to them, they would empty out all the yeshivos and send them all to the army.
"And now, let us ask ourselves: if in all most vital areas, the Mizrachi people maintain themselves as our enemies and opposers, how can we possibly appear with them in a joint list for the Knesset? Joining them in a united religious front will not change them or the views which they have embraced throughout the years, It will only find us enhancing their power which will only be used against us."
To the attention of those who 'buy' the fabricated tales of their representatives, they seem to declare that because in this present war, so many of their followers have fallen in battle, they have arrived at the conclusion that the Torah world must be destroyed by the conscription of the yeshiva students.
The history of the State indicates that this has been their self-destructive approach from 'way back,' just as the Chazon Ish described in his famous letter: "Those who embrace mediocrity and shun extremism, are akin to counterfeiters or ignoramuses."
