Rivlin Clashes with Bloom: “Enough Expecting Netanyahu to Defend the Chareidim”
Is the coalition on the brink of collapse over the draft law? Commentators Yaakov Rivlin and attorney Avi Bloom offered sharply differing analyses during a discussion on the Main Edition program with Avi Mimran, assessing the prime minister’s fragile standing with his chareidi partners and the growing internal tension surrounding the controversial legislation.
Bloom began by asserting that “Netanyahu keeps delaying discussions in the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee about the draft issue — not because he’s evading it, but because he has no answers from the chareidim.” Despite numerous meetings with gedolim, Bloom said, “there’s still no agreed formula. Meir Porush himself told me, ‘I’m not submitting any draft to the Rebbes because I have no idea whether it’s something we can move forward with.’”
Bloom added that Netanyahu “knows full well this law won’t pass without clear chareidi consent, and it’s possible he’s already thinking ahead — perhaps toward elections.”
Rivlin, however, argued that “the real battle isn’t in the Knesset — it’s among us. There’s no internal consensus, neither in the Litvishe Moetzes nor among the chassidim. Everyone knows there’s a deep divide between supporters and opponents of the law.” The heart of the issue, he said, is simple: “Can we live with a law that calls for drafting 4,800 bochurim a year? Everything else is just noise.”
Turning his attention to public expectations, Rivlin criticized the notion that Netanyahu should “defend the chareidim,” calling it “a badge of shame. We have representatives in the Knesset — let one of them get up and speak. We don’t need a feudal lord to protect us.”
Bloom disagreed. “The chareidi public is Netanyahu’s most loyal partner. When vile statements are made in the plenum, it’s only natural to expect him to stand up and say — the chareidi community is not an enemy, it’s a faithful ally.”
Rivlin countered, “He didn’t defend Ben-Gvir either when he was under fire. Everyone defends himself — enough with this mindset that someone needs to protect us.”
The discussion then shifted to the ideological divide within the chareidi camp. “There are groups that don’t want any law at all,” Rivlin said. “Their approach is chaos — as long as there’s no law, they’re happy.” Bloom warned that “anyone who imagines that the Torah world can simply cut itself off from the state is mistaken. Without a law, thousands of families will starve. Even now, roshei kollel can’t raise funds — the donors are closing the spigots.”
Drawing a historical parallel, Rivlin compared the current dispute to the famous debate between the Chazon Ish and the Satmar Rav: “The Chazon Ish understood that the Torah world couldn’t survive without the state — and today we see the results: hundreds of thousands learning Torah, a massive teshuvah movement — all thanks to that historic decision.”
Bloom concluded on a spiritual note: “At the end of the day, the yeshivos are the mezuzah of the state. As long as the state helps support Torah learning, it carries deep spiritual meaning. Anyone who wants to sever that connection is essentially removing the mezuzah from the house.”
{Matzav.com}
