A Daily Analysis
By Marc Schulman

Sept 8 , 2009 Iran Nuclear Program, Charedim and Tal Law, Chabad in Ramat Aviv

Dr. Mohamed El Baradei,i, the outgoing head announced yesterday that he has reached a stalemate with the Iranians over their nuclear program. The Iranians are no longer providing him with any new information or answering his request for info. This is the day after El Barade stated in an interview that the US and others were overstating the Iranian threat. Today Russia, China, India and Brazil made it clear they oppose any additional sanctions on Iran. That, effectively, closes the option of putting any economic pressure on Iran that might matter. It leaves only one real option to stop the Iranian program: an American attack, something that looks very unlikely. A nuclear Iran is the most likely outcome. Not a very promising prediction.

The Israeli Supreme Court decided to delay a decision in a case in which the government has been accused of not implementing The Tal Law. The Tal law calls for Charedi men who decide not to continue to study in Yeshivot to do one year of Sherut Leumi, instead of the three year army service that they have not done. The Supreme Court gave the government more time to prove it could implement the law passed in 2002. Since 2002 1,200 Charedim have done community service, most working for organizations within their community. To put the number in perspective, every year 5,000-6,000 Charedim are exempted from the draft, that represents 12% of the yearly male draft, that number will grow to 24% in five to seven years.

There is a fight going on in Ramat Aviv, a middle class area of North Tel Aviv. The fight is over the growing number of Chabad who have moved into the neighborhood. The fight is being led by an individual who has become a Ba'al T'shuva, and then decided that it was not his way. His claim is that the Chabad settlement of the area is part of a plan to slowly take over specific areas and neighborhoods and that the secular residents need to take proactive action.

An international report on education ranks the size of Israeli classrooms as one of the largest in the world. The average elementary school class in Israel as 27.5 and middle school has 33.