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With Its Soldiers Mired In Gaza, Israel Is Fighting A Battle At Home Over Drafting The Ultra-Orthodox.
JERUSALEM — As Israel fights a long war in Gaza, broad exemptions from mandatory military service for ultra-Orthodox men have reopened a deep schism in the country and shaken the government coalition, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s fellow War Cabinet members staunchly opposed to his proposed new conscription legislation.
By the end of the month, Israel’s government must introduce legislation to increase recruiting among the religious community. As the deadline approaches, public debate has become increasingly poisonous, starkly contrasting to early-war expressions of solidarity.
With Its Soldiers Mired In Gaza, Israel Is Fighting A Battle At Home Over Drafting The Ultra-Orthodox.
So far, Netanyahu’s government has weathered the public outrage caused by Hamas’ October 7 strike, which launched the war, but the draft issue has put him in a bind. The fall of the three-member War Cabinet would jeopardize the country’s stability at a critical juncture in the conflict. However, losing the ultra-Orthodox parties would bring down his broader ruling coalition, forcing the country into new elections, as Netanyahu and his Likud party are losing in opinion polls.
“Politically, this is one of the most concrete threats to the government,” said Gilad Malach, an ultra-Orthodox researcher at the Jerusalem-based Israel Democracy Institute.
The typical Jewish male service commitment is almost three years, then several years of reserve duty. Jewish women must serve two required years. However, the politically influential ultra-Orthodox, who account for approximately 13% of Israeli society, have typically been granted exemptions provided they are enrolled full-time in religious seminaries. The exemptions and the government stipends that many seminary students get until they reach the age of 26 have outraged the general population.
The Supreme Court declared the current system discriminatory and gave the administration until April 1 to offer a bill and June 30 to pass it.
Yoav Gallant and Benny Gantz, who serve in Netanyahu’s War Cabinet, argue that the prime minister’s proposed measure does not go far enough to increase the number of ultra-Orthodox soldiers. Critics argue that some components, such as raising the exemption age, could reduce the numbers.
Gantz, Netanyahu’s main political challenger, warned that he would resign from the Cabinet if the enlistment law were reduced or if it was not passed by the deadline. Defense Minister Gallant stated that he would only accept a new law if Gantz and other centrist members of the country’s interim wartime administration agreed.
The administration consists of ultranationalist religious and Orthodox groups, which Gantz and a group of other former military generals joined in the early stages of the conflict. The merger was intended as a display of unity in the aftermath of October 7. However, the parties disagreed strongly on conscription.
Following the Hamas attack, Israel activated 360,000 reservists, its greatest mobilization since the 1973 Middle East war. Many have been freed but are anticipated to return to active duty in the following months. The increasing reserve duty and ideas of expanding mandatory service have fueled public outrage.
Israel’s Jewish majority views mandatory military service as a melting pot and rite of passage. The ultra-Orthodox argue that integrating into the army will jeopardize their generations-old way of life and that their devout lifestyle and adherence to Jewish precepts defend Israel as much as a powerful army.
“We prefer dying to serving in the Israeli army,” said Yona Kruskal, 42, a father of 11 and full-time seminary student, as he and some 200 others blocked traffic in Jerusalem last week in one of the many rallies against the conscription bill. “There’s no way you can force us to go to the army, because we are hell-bent that the army and religion contradict one another.”
As the ultra-Orthodox clashed with police during the protest, other Israelis chanted, “Shame! Shame!”
With Its Soldiers Mired In Gaza, Israel Is Fighting A Battle At Home Over Drafting The Ultra-Orthodox.
“My friends are sitting in Gaza while you’re here, sitting on the ground,” the man said. A woman yelled at the demonstrators, saying her son was serving in Gaza to protect them.
According to Oren Shvill, founder of Brothers in Arms, a protest group representing reserve troops who oppose Netanyahu, the ultra-Orthodox benefit from the army’s protection without actively participating. “There’s one law for everyone, and it should be enforced equally,” he said.
Economists believe the system is unsustainable. With its high birthrate, the ultra-Orthodox community is the fastest-growing portion of the population, rising approximately 4% each year. Every year, some 13,000 ultra-Orthodox males reach the conscription age of 18, yet less than 10% enlist, according to the Israeli parliament’s State Control Committee, which recently convened a hearing on the issue.
“One of the things that was debatable in the past but is now much clearer is that we need more soldiers,” said Yoaz Hendel, a former Netanyahu confidant and Cabinet member who recently completed four months of reserve duty as head of a special forces unit. He stated that the service burden should be distributed fairly across all community sectors.
The shock of the October 7 attack appeared to stoke some enthusiasm among the ultra-Orthodox to serve, but no big enlistment occurred, according to Israeli media. The army refused to comment on the ultra-Orthodox enrollment rate.
The subject has long split Israel, and court rulings have consistently ruled the system wrong. However, Israeli leaders have frequently postponed, citing pressure from ultra-Orthodox parties. It’s unclear if Netanyahu will be able to do so again.
As Netanyahu’s administration advanced a legal system overhaul with support from ultra-Orthodox coalition partners who sought to overturn court rulings on conscription, the rift over exemptions grew worse last year. The administration halted the overhaul after the war broke out.
The army has attempted to accommodate the ultra-Orthodox by forming distinct battalions that allow them to keep their religious traditions while reducing interaction with women.
With Its Soldiers Mired In Gaza, Israel Is Fighting A Battle At Home Over Drafting The Ultra-Orthodox.
Ephraim Luff, 65, a full-time seminary student in the ultra-Orthodox city of Bnei Brak, rejected such efforts, claiming that the men who enlist in these units are not “real Haredim,” as the ultra-Orthodox are known in Hebrew.
“The army is the final stage of Israeli education to make people into secular Israelis and to disconnect them from their Jewish heritage,” said Luff, who described how one of his eight children “strayed from the path” of full-time learning and served in the army as a truck driver for a year and a half.
Yitzhak Yosef, one of the country’s two chief rabbis, stated last month that the ultra-Orthodox “will all move abroad” if compelled to join. According to Malach of the Israel Democracy Institute, the comment elicited both outrage for urging Israelis to leave amid a national crisis and derision because many secular Israelis would not mind the ultra-Orthodox departing en masse.
On the contrary, Malach believes that the ultra-Orthodox leadership’s refusal to compromise, even as other segments of Israeli society make major sacrifices, has alienated a larger portion of the population.
“I don’t see a real opportunity for change in this government,” he told reporters. But if there are elections and there is a coalition without haredim or with weakened haredim, there could be a change.”
SOURCE – (AP)
Boulevard, California — Julia Paredes believed that her migration to the United States was either now or never. Mexico was just days away from needing visas for Peruvian travelers. If she didn’t move immediately, she’d have to embark on a more dangerous, clandestine voyage overland to join her sister in Dallas.
Mexico began requiring visas for Peruvians on Monday in response to a significant surge of migrants from the South American country, following similar actions by Venezuelans, Ecuadorians, and Brazilians. It removed the possibility of flying to a Mexican city near the US border, like Paredes, 45, did just before the deadline.
“I had to treat it as an emergency,” said Paredes, who worked delivering lunch to miners in Arequipa, Peru, and borrowed money to fly to Tijuana, Mexico, across the border from San Diego. Last month, traffickers led her through a remote hole in the border wall to a dirt lot in California, where she and about 100 other migrants from around the world chilled over campfires after a morning drizzle while waiting for overloaded Border Patrol agents to bring them to a processing station.
AP – VOR News Image
Mexico Tightens Travel Rules On Peruvians In A Show Of Visa Diplomacy To Slow Migration To US
Senior US officials addressed reporters ahead of a summit of top diplomats from approximately 20 Western hemisphere countries this week in Guatemala. They praised Mexico’s crackdown on air travel from Peru and described visa restrictions as an important instrument for combating illegal migration.
Critics argue that banning air travel fosters more risky decisions. Although the pause was brief, illegal migration by Venezuelans fell sharply after Mexico enforced visa requirements in January 2022. Last year, Venezuelans accounted for about two-thirds of the record-breaking 520,000 migrants who crossed the Darien Gap, a notorious jungle that spans portions of Panama and Colombia.
Last year, more than 25,000 Chinese traveled through Darien. They typically fly to Ecuador, a country with little travel restrictions, and then illegally cross the US border in San Diego to request asylum. With an immigration court backlog of over 3 million cases, it takes years to resolve such claims, allowing people to obtain work permits and establish roots.
“People are going to come no matter what,” said Miguel Yaranga, 22, who flew from Lima, Peru’s capital, to Tijuana before being released by Border Patrol on Sunday at a San Diego bus stop. He received orders to appear in immigration court in New York in February 2025, which perplexed him because he had informed authorities he would settle with his sister on the opposite side of the country, in Bakersfield, California.
According to Jeremy MacGillivray, deputy chief of the International Organization for Migration’s Mexico mission, Peruvian migration will reduce “at least at the beginning” and then rebound as individuals move to travel through the Darien Gap and to Central America and Mexico.
Last month, Mexico said that it will need visas for Peruvians for the first time since 2012 in response to a “substantial increase” in illegal migration. Large-scale Peruvian migration to Mexico began in 2022. Peruvians were stopped an average of 2,160 times each month from January to March this year, up from a monthly average of 544 times in 2023.
Peruvians also began arriving at the US border in 2022. The US Border Patrol apprehended Peruvians an average of 5,300 times per month last year, dropping to 3,400 from January to March amid Mexico’s massive immigration campaign.
Peru promptly reciprocated Mexico’s visa demand but altered its direction after facing criticism from the country’s tourism industry. Peru stated in its reversal that it is a member of a regional economic bloc that includes Mexico, Chile, and Colombia.
AP – VOR News Image
Mexico Tightens Travel Rules On Peruvians In A Show Of Visa Diplomacy To Slow Migration To US
According to Adam Isaacson, an analyst at the Washington Office on Latin America, Peru’s membership in the Pacific Alliance with Mexico gave its people visa-free travel longer than in other countries.
It is unknown whether Colombia, another major source of migration, will be next, but Isacson claims Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador has a “lovefest” with his Colombian counterpart, Gustavo Petro, while his relations with Peru’s administration are tense.
Colombians frequently rank among the top nationalities of migrants arriving at Tijuana’s airport. Many stay in motels before being guided to the boulder-strewn mountains east of the city, where they cross through border wall holes and walk into dirt lots designated as waiting stations by the Border Patrol.
Bryan Ramírez, a 25-year-old Colombian, arrived in the United States with his girlfriend last month, just two days after flying from Bogota to Cancun, Mexico, and then to Tijuana. He waited with others overnight for Border Patrol authorities to pick him up as chilly rain and strong winds whipped over the crackle of high-voltage power lines.
The group waiting near Boulevard, a small, vaguely defined rural community, included several Peruvians who claimed to have come for economic opportunities and to flee violence and political concerns.
Peruvians can still bypass the Darien jungle by traveling to El Salvador, which granted them visa-free travel in December in exchange for a similar action by Peru’s government. However, they would still have to travel overland via Mexico, where many are robbed or abducted.
Mexico Tightens Travel Rules On Peruvians In A Show Of Visa Diplomacy To Slow Migration To US
Ecuadorians, who have required visas to enter Mexico since September 2021, can also fly to El Salvador, albeit not all of them do. Oscar Palacios, 42, explained that he walked through Darien since he couldn’t afford to fly.
Palacios, who abandoned his wife and year-old child in Ecuador with plans to financially support them in the United States, said it took him two weeks to get from his house near the violent city of Esmeralda to Mexico’s border with Guatemala. It took him two months to cross Mexico because immigration officials turned him around three times and bused him back to the country’s southern region. He claimed he was routinely robbed.
After three nights in a motel, Palacios arrived in Tijuana and entered the United States. A Border Patrol agent recognized him with migrants from Turkey and Brazil and drove them to a dirt lot to wait for a van or bus to transport them to a processing station. Looking back on the adventure, Palacios stated that he would rather cross the Darien Gap 100 times than Mexico just once.
SOURCE – (AP)
Pavilion Township, Michigan – Severe storms swept into the Midwest early Wednesday, a day after two tornadoes ripped through a Michigan city and surrounding area, demolishing homes and business structures, including a FedEx factory.
According to the National Weather Service, tornadoes were initially recorded after dark Tuesday in sections of Michigan, Indiana, and Ohio. Tornado watches were also in effect in Illinois, Kentucky, and Missouri. The storms struck a day after a fatal tornado blasted through an Oklahoma town.
Travis Wycoff left his southwestern Michigan home Tuesday night after seeing on radar that a tornado had touched down in the Portage region. About five minutes later, he discovered the aftermath.
“There were a lot of people running through the streets trying to find people and their pets,” Wycoff stated. “It was just a lot of chaos.”
AP – VOR News image
Severe Storms Batter The Midwest, Including Reported Tornadoes That Shredded A FedEx Facility
Wycoff claimed he assisted an elderly couple get out of their partially collapsed home and liberated a service dog from a property whose owner was at work.
On Wednesday morning, he distributed water and volunteered to assist in cutting down fallen tree branches around the Pavilion Estates mobile home park.
“It is community. “I can’t sit a mile away from here when I was completely safe,” Wycoff added. “I couldn’t sit there in good conscience and not come down to try to help somehow.”
The National Weather Service verified that a tornado with a preliminary EF-0 rating and winds of 85 mph (137 kph) came down early Wednesday in southern Indiana, damaging homes in a subdivision north of Sellersburg, which is about 12 miles (19 kilometers) north of Louisville, Kentucky.
The Clark County Emergency Management Agency reported that the storm damaged 24 structures.
Candice Holmes, a Lewis & Clark condominium homeowner north of Sellersburg, said she, her husband, and son took refuge in their bathroom when they heard the approaching storm and “the wind just picked up all at once.”
“My husband and son went outside, opened the door, slammed it, and hurried back to the restroom. “And they held the bathroom door shut as it passed through,” Holmes told WDRB-TV. “It was done as soon as it began, but it was a frightening experience. And I’m delighted we’re still alive.
According to Jeff Craven, the meteorologist in charge of the weather service’s Pittsburgh office, survey teams will go out Wednesday to evaluate whether tornadoes affected Pennsylvania, Ohio, and West Virginia regions.
Tornadoes were detected on radar in Hancock County, West Virginia, and Jefferson County, Ohio, but according to Craven, teams will need to assess the damage to determine their rating.
Hancock County Schools in West Virginia canceled classes Wednesday due to “extensive overnight weather issues” throughout the county. News outlets reported damaged structures and power disruptions.
AP – VOR News Image
Severe Storms Batter The Midwest, Including Reported Tornadoes That Shredded A FedEx Facility
According to forecaster Tabitha Clarke, a National Weather Service team was also heading to Hot Springs, Arkansas, to assess the damage and strength of a tornado that struck early Wednesday morning.
The tornado damaged homes, toppled trees, and knocked down power lines. According to the state Division of Emergency Management, there were no initial reports of tornado-related injuries.
In Michigan, two tornadoes slammed through Portage and the nearby Pavilion Township, demolishing houses and commercial structures, including a FedEx facility.
No significant casualties were reported immediately, but municipal officials claimed in a news release that the tornadoes knocked off electricity to more than 20,000 residents. According to city officials, the majority of them will be without power until late Wednesday.
Due to broken electrical lines, approximately 50 people were trapped inside the FedEx building. However, corporate representative Shannon Davis confirmed late Tuesday that “all team members are safe and accounted for.”
According to Kalamazoo County Sheriff Richard Fuller, more than a dozen mobile homes in Pavilion Township were “totally destroyed.” At least 16 individuals were hurt there, he said, although the injuries were not life-threatening.
“We found homes in the roadway,” the sheriff stated late Tuesday. “We found houses in our neighbors’ homes. We discovered huge trees in residences.
“The cleanup efforts are enormous. We’re looking at homes across this community that have been completely demolished,” Fuller said Wednesday at the Pavilion Estates mobile home park.
A house with seven occupants “is totally on its top,” he remarked. They were able to self-rescue, get somewhere safe, and come back today.”
Pavilion Township is approximately 137 miles (220 kilometers) west of Detroit.
According to PowerOutage.us, over 30,000 people in Michigan lost power early Wednesday, with another 10,000 in Ohio.
Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer has proclaimed a state of emergency in four counties.
National Weather Service crews were surveying storm damage in several counties in Michigan’s southwest Lower Peninsula on Wednesday to determine whether tornadoes touched down there, including the two reported Tuesday night in the Portage area, according to meteorologist Mike Sutton of the weather service’s Grand Rapids office.
He said the Grand Rapids office had received 11 tornado reports from storm spotters, emergency managers, and the general public between late Tuesday afternoon and Tuesday night, but no tornado touchdowns had been confirmed as of 8 a.m. on Wednesday.
AP – VOR News Image
Severe Storms Batter The Midwest, Including Reported Tornadoes That Shredded A FedEx Facility
“It’s possible that these are numerous reports from the same storm. The real number of tornadoes could be fewer depending on what they uncover while surveying,” Sutton said.
The storms on Tuesday followed a day of torrential rain, strong winds, hail, and tornadoes in parts of the central United States. Tornadoes wreaked havoc across the Plains and Midwest this spring.
Across the United States, the entire week looks stormy. The Midwest and South are likely to bear the brunt of the poor weather for the remainder of the week, including Indianapolis, Memphis, Nashville, St. Louis, and Cincinnati, which have more than 21 million populations. It should become evident over the weekend.
On Monday night, a catastrophic tornado ripped through the 1,000-person community of Barnsdall, Oklahoma. At least one person was killed, and another is missing. Dozens of homes have been damaged.
It was the second tornado to strike Barnsdall in five weeks; on April 1, a twister with maximum wind speeds of 90 to 100 mph (145 to 161 kph) damaged homes and blew down trees and power poles.
Oklahoma communities, including Sulphur and Holdenville, are still recuperating after a tornado that killed four people and left others without electricity late last month.
SOURCE – (AP)
News
Travis Kelce Lines Up Another TV Job And Joins FX’s ‘American Horror Story: Grotesquerie’ Season
Travis Kelce keeps himself busy as his famous girlfriend, Taylor Swift continues her global Eras tour.
The NFL player has joined the cast of “American Horror Story: Grotesquerie.”
Fox – VOR News Image
Travis Kelce Lines Up Another TV Job And Joins FX’s ‘American Horror Story: Grotesquerie’ Season
“Guys, guess who I am working with on ‘Grotesquerie’?” Kelce enters the scene and adds, “Jumpin’ into new territory with Niecy.” A later video with the caption “late night shenanigans” shows the two in what seems to be a red convertible. “Look at this guy,” she comments. Buckle up!” Kelce exclaims.
Los 5 – VOR News Image
Travis Kelce Lines Up Another TV Job And Joins FX’s ‘American Horror Story: Grotesquerie’ Season
A last video showed the show’s creator, Ryan Murphy, embracing Kelce and saying, “You were wonderful.” Off camera, Nash inquires, “How do you feel?” Kelce said, “Whoo!” “I’m just glad I didn’t hurt anyone.”
The Kansas City Chiefs’ three-time Super Bowl-winning tight end has had a busy offseason with new gigs. He also hosted “Are You Smarter Than a Celebrity?” on Prime Video.
Kelce hosted an edition of “Saturday Night Live” last year.
Getty – VOR News Image
Travis Kelce Lines Up Another TV Job And Joins FX’s ‘American Horror Story: Grotesquerie’ Season
Murphy has a history of making unusual casting choices for his TV productions. In 2015, he cast Lady Gaga in “American Horror Story: Hotel.” She won a Golden Globe for her performance. Last year, he also cast Kim Kardashian opposite Emma Roberts in “American Horror Story: Delicate”. Kardashian received excellent feedback for her performance and has further acting TV projects in the works.
SOURCE – (AP)
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