Yair Golan who is the head of the left-wing Democrats party [a merger of the Labor and Meretz parties] decried the fact that the State of Israel never instituted programs to encourage Chareidim to go off the derech. In an interview with a news outlet for Russian speakers in Israel, Golan asserted that the State of Israel needs to work in several ways against Chareidim, including not funding any Chareidi educational institutions and ensuring that any Chareidi who is eligible for the draft doesn’t receive even one shekel from the government. His third idea was, as he put it: “Why hasn’t the State of Israel instituted programs [for Chareidim] that encourage a) IDF recruitment and b) going off the derech?” “Why?!” he repeated. Secular Channel 14 journalist Shai Golden exorciated Golan, responding to his outrageous suggestion by saying: “Why didn’t the State of Israel encourage removing kippos? Why didn’t the State of Israel encourage giving up the Shabbat as a day of rest? Why doesn’t the State of Israel forbid Brit Milah? Why doesn’t the State of Israel close all religious and Rabbinic institutions and forbid religious weddings altogether? Why is the State of Israel a Jewish state? Why doesn’t the State of Israel forbid putting on tefillin at home also? [A reference to the ban of tefillin stands in Tel Aviv.] Why doesn’t it forbid fasting on Yom Kippur and Tisha B’Av? Huh, Yair Golan? Why really?” Golden continued: “This man is unbelievable. He actually said this in the State of Israel, a state created so that Jews could live like Jews…Do you even understand the insanity of your statements? And I say this as a secular person, a person who is much closer to you in lifestyle than most people here. Aren’t you ashamed?” (YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)