Hadar Mochtar as a Warning Sign
Ofer Ben Nun, a reservist, describes an encounter with Hadar Mochtar at the Haredi Million March, and analyzes her allegedly false claims about resource distribution. He argues that Mochtar promotes incorrect data to side with the Haredim and alienate reservists, and that her statements indicate the nationalization of the Haredi agenda within the Israeli right.
Ofer Ben Nun, a reservist and columnist, describes an encounter with Hadar Mochtar at the Haredi Million March in Jerusalem. According to him, Mochtar tried to provoke a small group of tired reservists. This week, Mochtar circulated a video claiming that Haredim receive much less from the state than their proportional share of the population, while reservists receive much more. Ben Nun calls this an outright lie, citing a study by Michael Sarel, Ariel Karlinsky, and Tom Shade, according to which a non-Haredi Jewish household loses about 6,100 shekels per month (the difference between taxes and services), while a Haredi family receives a surplus of about 4,000 shekels. He claims the updated numbers are higher, approaching a loss of 9,000 shekels for a non-Haredi household. Ben Nun analyzes Mochtar's motives, describing her as a young, ambitious person seeking to advance in right-wing politics. According to him, her statements indicate that the Haredi agenda has been co-opted into the right, and that politicians in Likud and Otzma Yehudit hardly criticize Haredi draft evasion. He warns of a dangerous mix of nationalism and anti-Zionism, and concludes by calling on the right to see Hadar Mochtar as a warning sign and make a U-turn.