[ssba]

Professor Yedidya Stern, member of the committee for equal military and civic service in Israel: “We missed a historic opportunity to ease the tensions surrounding one of the most heated disputes in Israeli society. Netanyahu’s statement that unless the issue is resolved beforehand, a universal draft law would go into effect on August 1 can mean one of two things – either we open up the draft to haredim and Arabs, or these are just empty words. I fear that this summer will be characterized by extreme social tension – and this is what we were trying to avoid.”

Source: Ynetnews