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A gathering political storm over drafting Haredi men into the Israel Defense Forces is posing a risk to Israel's government and dividing the country.

The public mood on the matter has changed profoundly in Israel in the wake of two years of hostilities, and this is now perhaps the most volatile political challenge facing Benjamin Netanyahu.

The Legal Conflict

Politicians are currently considering a proposal to terminate the exemption awarded to yeshiva scholars engaged in yeshiva learning, created when the State of Israel was declared in 1948.

The deferment was ruled illegal by the Supreme Court almost 20 years ago. Interim measures to continue it were officially terminated by the court last year, pressuring the government to commence conscription of the Haredi sector.

Approximately 24,000 call-up papers were delivered last year, but just approximately 1,200 Haredi conscripts enlisted, according to defense officials shared with lawmakers.

Friction Spill Onto the Streets

Tensions are erupting onto the city centers, with parliamentarians now debating a new draft bill to compel yeshiva students into army duty in the same way as other Israeli Jews.

Two Haredi politicians were confronted this month by some extreme ultra-Orthodox protesters, who are enraged with parliament's discussion of the bill.

And last week, a elite police squad had to extract enforcement personnel who were targeted by a large crowd of ultra-Orthodox protesters as they sought to apprehend a suspected draft-evader.

These arrests have sparked the creation of a new communication network named "Emergency Alert" to rapidly disseminate information through ultra-Orthodox communities and summon protesters to prevent arrests from occurring.

"We're a Jewish country," stated one protester. "One cannot oppose Judaism in a Jewish country. It is a contradiction."

A Realm Separate

Yet the transformations affecting Israel have not yet breached the environment of the Kisse Rahamim yeshiva in a Haredi stronghold, an religious community on the fringes of Tel Aviv.

Within the study hall, teenage boys study together to debate Jewish law, their vividly colored writing books contrasting with the seats of formal attire and small black kippahs.

"Arrive late at night, and you will see half the guys are engaged in learning," the head of the seminary, a senior rabbi, explained. "Through religious study, we safeguard the military personnel in the field. This is our army."

Haredi Jews maintain that unceasing devotion and spiritual pursuit guard Israel's soldiers, and are as crucial to its military success as its advanced weaponry. That belief was endorsed by previous governments in the previous eras, the rabbi said, but he acknowledged that public attitudes are shifting.

Growing Public Pressure

This religious sector has more than doubled its percentage of the country's people over the past seven decades, and now accounts for 14%. A policy that originated as an exemption for several hundred religious students turned into, by the beginning of the 2023 war, a body of some 60,000 men not subject to the conscription.

Surveys indicate approval of ending the exemption is increasing. Research in July found that 85% of non-Haredi Jews - even a significant majority in Netanyahu's own right-wing Likud party - favored consequences for those who declined a draft order, with a clear majority in approving withdrawing benefits, the right to travel, or the right to vote.

"I feel there are individuals who are part of this nation without serving," one military member in Tel Aviv commented.

"It is my belief, regardless of piety, [it] should be an reason not to fulfill your duty to your country," stated a Tel Aviv resident. "As a citizen by birth, I find it quite ridiculous that you want to avoid service just to engage in religious study all day."

Perspectives from the Heart of a Religious City

Support for broadening conscription is also coming from religious Jews beyond the ultra-Orthodox sector, like a Bnei Brak inhabitant, who resides close to the yeshiva and notes religious Zionists who do enlist in the army while also studying Torah.

"I am frustrated that the Haredim don't enlist," she said. "It is unjust. I also believe in the Jewish law, but there's a proverb in Hebrew - 'Safra and Saifa' – it signifies the scripture and the defense together. This is the correct approach, until the arrival of peace."

She maintains a modest remembrance site in Bnei Brak to fallen servicemen, both observant and non-observant, who were killed in battle. Long columns of faces {