The Shas daily "Yom Leyom" ("Day to Day") has suggested some original ways to protest the government's plan to draft yeshiva students, including leaving the country altogether and filing charges againt Israel in the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague.

In a piercing op-ed published Thursday, the newspaper's editor, Rabbi Moshe Shafir, warned of "anarchy" or "chaos" in case the haredim will no longer be exempt from army service.

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"Not one haredi will enlist without the authorization of the rabbis. We'll devote our lives to the Torah at any price," wrote Shafir, a forefront Shas spokesperson.

In his column, Shafir warned of mass ultra-Orthodox demonstrations and said "lawsuits in the UN and the international courts, such as those filed by Israel's Left, will be effective.

"Holocaust-type photos of dozens of children wearing yellow badges may even leave the last German submarine in the shipyard," the rabbi said, referring to the sale of German Dolphin submarines to Israel.





'Casualties on both sides' (Archive photo: Reuters)

Turning to Israel's secular community, Shafir warned that the haredim may resort to a "tax revolt" and launch strikes that will "make spaghetti of your country." He also warned of a mass haredi exodus "which will gradually turn you into a minority in the face of an Arab majority.

"We will also make it difficult to realize your melting pot ideal - the prisons are already filled with Eritreans," he said in the editorial.

Yom Leyom also criticized Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for "lacking leadership" and leaving important decisions in the hands of "random teenagers."

"When there is no (leader), there is no government, and when there is no government, there is civil war," the rabbi wrote. "And in war there are casualties on both sides."

Rabbi Eliezer Melamed , head of the Har Bracha yeshiva, suggested that the government exempt women from IDF service before recruiting haredi men.

"The interaction between men and women in the army is the main obstacle, and the leaders of the haredi public use it as the main argument (against the recruitment of haredim)," he wrote in a column published in the haredi newspaper Besheva.

"The army must prepare for the absorption of thousands of soldiers who devoutly keep the mitzvoth."

The rabbi said that like other religious people, the ultra-Orthodox must also be offered tracks similar to the hesder yehivas that will allow them to combine army service with Torah studies.