With Israel fighting a two-front war in the Gaza Strip and Lebanon, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s ultra-Orthodox partners are demanding draft exemptions for yeshiva students and other members of the haredi community.
This impudent demand was presented by United Torah Judaism and Shas, two ultra-Orthodox parties in his coalition government. They have a total of 18 seats in the Knesset, which means they can easily topple Netanyahu’s government. At the moment, he has 64 out of 120 parliamentary seats.
Realizing they hold the key to his government’s survival, Netanyahu seems in no hurry to induct haredi men into the armed forces, even though the first 1,000 of 7,000 draft orders were recently sent to males in the ultra-Orthodox community.
In response, several hundred haredi protesters blocked a major road in in central Israel in both directions, snagging traffic for hours. Rabbi Avi Friedman, a haredi leader, wildly claimed that the call up orders will destroy Judaism.
They were issued by Yoav Gallant, the defence minister, a day before Netanyahu unceremoniously sacked him and replaced him with Israel Katz, a pliable crony who had been foreign minister. Katz did not cancel these orders, but he may water them down.
Gallant ordered the recruitment of haredi males about four months after the Supreme Court, in a landmark ruling, decreed that no formal legalities stand in the way of conscripting haredim.
Gallant had no alternative but to draw on their cloistered community for additional manpower. At a time when Israeli troops are still fighting in Gaza and Lebanon and fending off missile and drone attacks from Islamic militias in Syria, Iraq and Yemen, Israel is perilously 20 percent short of combat soldiers, a figure that is likely to increase by five percent in the next few years.
The situation is so dire that Israel is repeatedly calling up thousands of the same reservists, even those who were previously discharged due to their advanced age.
Combat reservists have served an average of 136 days this year, but according to data from the Israel Defence Forces, approximately 40,000 reservists in combat and combat-support roles have failed to answer reserve duty call ups during this period.
The fall off is attributed to burnout after more than a year of warfare. But there is another factor at work here. Increasing number of Israelis resent the fact that haredim are simply not shouldering their fair share of the responsibility for protecting Israel. They shirk their duty, even as they collect generous welfare payments from the state. They claim that the study of Torah is equivalent to standing guard for the state, but this argument is less than convincing.
Sensing widespread resentment among Israelis who have faithfully served the country, Yuli Edelstein, the chairman of the Knesset’s Foreign Affairs and Defence Committee, is reluctantly holding up legislation to extend mandatory service to 36 months. Understandably enough, he is loathe to place a still heavier burden on the serving population without addressing the issue of haredi conscription.
In the meantime, the Israel Defence Forces are coping with a manpower shortage. This will inevitably have an impact on the battlefield and most probably will embolden Israel’s enemies.
According to The Institute for the Study of War, a U.S. think tank, the recruitment of ultra-Orthodox soldiers has increased in recent years, but still falls far short of the mark. This past summer, 3,000 draft orders were sent to haredi men aged 18-26, but less than 300 showed up at induction centers, where candidates are screened and evaluated.
That the vast majority of haredi males refuse to serve the nation while hundreds of soldiers are being killed in the line of duty is a damning indictment not only on them, but on their selfish and blinkered leaders. It is also a commentary on the refusal of many haredim to recognize Israel’s legitimacy as a state.
Haredim who snub their noses at joining the military should be given the choice of discharging their national duty in hospitals, schools, senior homes and psychiatric institutions. If this is too much for them, the stipends they currently receive from the government should immediately be cut off. Draft dodgers, too, should be imprisoned in accordance with the law.
It goes without saying that a very limited number of yeshiva students, namely the most gifted ones, should be granted draft deferments, but all the rest should be incrementally inducted into the armed forces. They should not be allowed to live off the fat of the land without consequences while others lay down their lives for Israel.