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A looming crisis over enlisting Haredi men into the military is jeopardizing the administration and fracturing the state.

Popular sentiment on the issue has shifted dramatically in Israel after two years of conflict, and this is now perhaps the most volatile political risk facing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

The Judicial Conflict

Legislators are now debating a draft bill to terminate the deferment granted to yeshiva scholars enrolled in Torah study, established when the modern Israel was established in 1948.

The deferment was struck down by the Supreme Court two decades ago. Interim measures to continue it were officially terminated by the court last year, pressuring the cabinet to start enlisting the Haredi sector.

Some 24,000 draft notices were sent out last year, but only around 1,200 ultra-Orthodox - or Haredi - draftees enlisted, according to military testimony presented to lawmakers.

Strains Boil Over Into Public View

Friction is spilling onto the public squares, with lawmakers now debating a new conscription law to force Haredi males into military service in the same way as other Israeli Jews.

A pair of ultra-Orthodox lawmakers were harassed this month by radical elements, who are incensed with the legislative debate of the proposed law.

And last week, a special Border Police unit had to extract army police who were targeted by a large crowd of Haredi men as they attempted to detain a suspected draft-evader.

These arrests have led to the development of a new alert system dubbed "Dark Alert" to spread word quickly through Haredi neighborhoods and summon protesters to stop detentions from happening.

"Israel is a Jewish nation," stated Shmuel Orbach. "It's impossible to battle Judaism in a nation founded on Jewish identity. It doesn't work."

A Realm Separate

Yet the transformations blowing through Israel have not yet breached the environment of the Kisse Rahamim yeshiva in Bnei Brak, an Haredi enclave on the fringes of Tel Aviv.

Inside the classroom, teenage boys study together to debate Jewish law, their brightly coloured notepads popping against the seats of white shirts and head coverings.

"Arrive late at night, and you will see a significant portion are pursuing religious study," the dean of the academy, the spiritual guide, said. "Through religious study, we safeguard the soldiers wherever they are. This is our army."

Haredi Jews maintain that unceasing devotion and religious study defend Israel's soldiers, and are as crucial to its military success as its advanced weaponry. This tenet was acknowledged by the nation's leaders in the previous eras, Rabbi Mazuz said, but he conceded that the nation is evolving.

Growing Public Pressure

The ultra-Orthodox population has more than doubled its share of the nation's citizens over the last seventy years, and now constitutes a sizable minority. What began as an deferment for several hundred yeshiva attendees evolved into, by the start of the 2023 war, a group of tens of thousands of men not subject to the national service.

Polling data indicate backing for ending the exemption is rising. A poll in July revealed that a large majority of non-Haredi Jews - including a significant majority in Netanyahu's own right-wing Likud party - backed sanctions for those who declined a call-up notice, with a firm majority in approving withdrawing benefits, the right to travel, or the right to vote.

"I feel there are people who are part of this country without contributing," one military member in Tel Aviv said.

"It is my belief, no matter how devout, [it] should be an excuse not to go and serve your nation," said a young woman. "As a citizen by birth, I find it somewhat unreasonable that you want to avoid service just to study Torah all day."

Views from Within the Community

Support for broadening conscription is also expressed by religious Jews outside the ultra-Orthodox sector, like Dorit Barak, who is a neighbor of the seminary and notes religious Zionists who do enlist in the army while also studying Torah.

"I'm very angry that the Haredim don't perform military service," she said. "It is unjust. I also believe in the Jewish law, but there's a saying in Jewish tradition - 'Safra and Saifa' – it represents the scripture and the weapons together. This is the correct approach, until the messianic era."

Ms Barak runs a local tribute in the neighborhood to local soldiers, both observant and non-observant, who were fallen in war. Rows of faces {