The haredi publication Yated Ne'eman launched a harsh campaign today against the Haredi Institute for Policy Studies following a conference held this week in Jerusalem on the recruitment of haredim into the IDF. According to the newspaper, leading figures in the haredi community expressed "deep shock" at the event's occurrence. "During the conference, individuals involved in schemes to recruit haredim were given legitimacy simply by the event's occurrence," the article stated. Among the participants were Chairman of the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee Yuli Edelstein, National Unity leader Benny Gantz, and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, "who discussed ways to impose personal sanctions on those who do not enlist," according to the article. The article particularly criticized the conference's moderator, Yossi Yehoshua, a Yediot Aharonot journalist, who said: "Patience has run out. Someone needs to shoulder the burden, with all due respect to the individual reserve service program, we must recruit soldiers at age 24, because two years later we don't know where they'll be with the fifth or sixth child." The newspaper concluded with a call for the haredi community "to stand as a fortified wall" against attempts to alter haredi lifestyle. "In this critical hour, there is no room for collaboration with those seeking to change our path," the article concluded.
