“Political wheeling and dealing is going to take a break this weekend for the benefit of the public. We, the ones who bear the burden, the ones who serve, the ones who complain in living room conversations—‎on Saturday night we are going to be given an opportunity to say our piece. This isn’‎t Yohanan Plesner and Shaul Mofaz’‎s fight; it is our fight. On Saturday night an open rally is going to be held jointly by the members of the suckers’ ‎encampment, the Israeli Forum for Equal Service and the Common Denominator Movement in the plaza outside the Tel Aviv Museum. Anyone who thinks that the time has arrived to put an end to this ongoing and inconceivable aberration, anyone who believes that we are facing an historic opportunity that must not be missed, anyone who knows that things can’‎t go on this way any longer, has to come. The politicians will be closely watching that rally in Tel Aviv on Saturday. The number of people who attend will indicate whether the story of the Haredi draft is just another “‎temporary trend,” ‎as Shelly Yacimovich thinks, or whether it is an open wound and a ticking bomb, as many others think. Personally, I don’‎t think that it is a trend. This story is real, and it is happening here and now. There is no certainty that this is something that we are going to be able to change in another few years from now. It’‎s now or never.

‎The organizers of the rally are deliberating over what to do, whom to invite, whom not to invite. Should politicians be brought in? There are more than enough politicians who would be glad to ride this wave. Some of them would do so cynically, others would be genuinely supportive. Should artists be brought in? Meir Dagan, who heads a public NGO that seeks to change the system of government, but who has spoken out publicly in support of legislation that would subject all Haredim to the draft, is probably going to be coming. Now pressure is being applied to Yuval Diskin, the straight-talking former GSS director who has yet to sully himself in our political quagmire, to come as well and to speak out publicly.

‎This issue is above all differences of opinion. It is existential, it is immediate, it is real. With all due respect to the Iranian threat, the real bomb is the one that is ticking here inside of us. Once it explodes, not even the Air Force is going to be able to save us. And it is already beginning to explode.”