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Just take my money, and give it to the yeshiva students, so they could pray all day, every day, for my well-being and for my livelihood.
Perhaps their prayers will help me, and eventually, I will earn more, and then I could give away even more money to them, so they could continue spending their days in the most productive way the new Israel knows - prayers and Torah study - and we will all live happily ever after.
It's always surprising to rediscover just how the Haredi public is similar to the secular one. Even though the government rushes to double the funding of yeshiva students, promises double the wages for those who don't work or study secular subjects, and hold the national birth-rate record; and even though they will receive twice the sum for doing the same things they did until now; and despite the fact that Haredi lawmakers also demand to budget ultra-Orthodox people who come from abroad to study; despite all that, we must understand that they are important.
Even more important than the security budget and IDF soldiers!
Arye Erlich, a Haredi columnist in this very same outlet, argued that 52 percent of the ultra-Orthodox men are part of the labor market, thus they contribute to the Israeli economy as much as anyone else.
However, he forgot to mention that only one-third of that 52% work a full-time job, while in the secular public, employment rates stand at almost 85%.
Data shows that the top three deciles in Israel still pay about 90% of most government taxes, or in other words, carry the national burden on their shoulders. And these same people are the ones who voted for Lapid, Gantz, and other left-wing and centrist political parties. They are the milking cow, and like any cow, no one asks what its needs are, they just attach a tube to its udder.
Call it democracy, the decision of the majority of the people, or whatever suits you.
But, until the secular public is not provided with free daycare, after school programs, academic education, sufficient medical services, and affordable housing (while everyone else is funded by our money to ensure the survival of the right-wing), don't try to justify it or act all high and mighty.
Don't make arguments that you contribute, because the only thing you contribute is votes to Benjamin Netanyahu and his right-wing, religious bloc.