He understands that to run the state you need lots of Heavenly assistance. What better way to get that than from orthodox rabbis and orthodox Jews in general who have lots of merits because they're not lax in all of G-d's commandments, pray three times a day and learn Torah.

Prayers don't stop armies and terrorists, I'm afraid. Wake up and smell the rocket fuel.

If you define "smart" as selling your soul for position, as did Faust, and selling your electorate and coaltion partners down the river, in order to hold on to the reins of power, by licking the asses of the most unscrupulous bunch of extortionists, exploiters and schnorrers known to man, then he is smart.

First, let's make it clear. Netanyahu is an idiot for destroying Ulpana, sacrificing Eisner, sucking up to extreme Left, and being Abbas' doormat. He will be rightfully remembered as a PM who could have been great and chose to be a failure. Politically, any PM would have chosen the haredim with (10-15 seats) over Kadima (0 seats). You are right that prayers won't stop the Fatah terrorists and their Leftist allies, but neither will thousands of useless Haredi soldiers. All the people supporting Plesner fail to realize that his suggestions will destroy the IDF. A real reform would allow the Haredim to work with no connection to the draft. Service exemptions should be extended to the thousands of useless military jobs (especially held by women) that the army subsidizes. With the money saved, people who volunteer for National Service and useful IDF soldiers should be given better conditions.

Words fail me

for his personal aggrandissement. Heavens help Israel, when Corrupt leaders is all it has

The problem is that All citizens of Israel Need to be drafted, the Non Religious the Religious and the Arab Israeli's, they are all citizens the burden needs to be equally share, that is what Netanyahu said! A new committee needes to be formed that will find the right way for all citizens includinf the Arabs to serve. It is interesting I read that 35% of the citizens of Tel Aviv do not serve, so the IDF is not for the Rich Elitist Seculars! Do all the rich elitist Seculars have flat feet? But the Arabs are jumping up and down that they cannot serve, why the hell not! Many of the MK who have inportant points for their groups walked away in disgust, so in effect the committee became null and void, what other choice did Netanyahu have? How about stop Haradi bashing, at lkeast some of them do allready serve. First come to a solution that the 1.7 Million Israeli Arabs start to serve, if they are loyal citizens then they must serve in the IDF like every other (well some other, except Rich elite seculars) serve the the IDF

Mofaz warn us before to enter the coalition that he would meet 100% of the arabs demands. No need of another delusional leftist. to # 3: you talk about"selling coalition partners down the river". Mofaz is not a partner but an ennemy within the coalition. We don't need im

like barak, the public does not want kadima leadership to rule. Mofaz was not a good defence minister when olmert dragged sharon into the unilateral gaza withdrawal, and he sat on his ass while olmert and peretz and halutz failed to counter hezbollah asymmetrics by using human shields, fuel air, adhesive bombs for bunkers, special gas munitions, and mass land invasion from several directions. and then when olmert offered israeli destroying concessions, mofaz did nothing, nothing. So who needs hi, his judgement is flawed. Bibi did not need kadima, some members like shneller and dichter would probably return to kadima and the rest of them can go to labour where they belong. The haredi have to do militiary service and beitenu has done a good job defending israel with spine, not bowing to obama on every move. Bibi had a stable coalition. He will not be relelected with all this hemming and hawing. Lieberman will replace him so long as he assures israel that he has no illusions about Putin., who would sell israel out in 5 seconds just as olmert did. by the way, olmert will be found guilty on some of the charges likely the doublebilling on July 10. get ready for jail after you exhaust your appeals. Olmert is like madoff, not only in alleged corruption but like zeira and halutz, an utter security failure.

Law is law and all that is necessary is to enforce it after it has been enacted. There is a law which states that a driver has to stop at a red light, no one, with or without a beard and black coat, is exempt from this law. It follows that all laws apply to all citizens. They should be picked up by the scruff of the neck and taken to the induction center. End of story.

My point is that frankly I'm left speechless by the chutzpah shown by the poster in #1. The haredim won't serve because they are serving Israel in a different way, namely through prayer. Kol hakavod but I don't need their prayers, and I might go as far as to suggest that neither does Israel. Offer me something material, even if that is just sherut leumi, to justify my taxes and maybe we can talk. In fact as far as I'm concerned the haredim can base their refusal to serve on anything else other than this 'serving Israel through prayer' tripe. I would respect them far more if they simply came out and said 'we won't serve because we don't want to. We enjoy our cushy lives too much.' Simply put: I put my faith in a soldier holding a rifle far more than I do a 'soldier of god' hiding behind his torah. In fact the two needn't be mutually exclusive. There are plenty out there who do their service with a gun in one hand and a bible in the other. And that, in principle, I have no problem with.

Haredim versus Kadima. It's a no brainer decision. Haredim are permanent. Kadima is temporary. Polls show it would win as few as three mandates in an election today. Kadima is...going...going...(thankfully) gone.

Pleasing the minority with large amounts of money and media is anti democratic. To make the point in an extreme way, look at dictators who dont care what the people think at all. Bibi doesnt want to get the chareidim upset, while the non religious dont want to cede military power to the religious , which is an obvious outcome of drafting a large number of them. So maybe the status quo doesnt look so bad after all.

How is that possible when they won more seats than Likud?