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A looming crisis over conscripting ultra-Orthodox Jews into the Israel Defense Forces is jeopardizing the administration and splitting the country.

Public opinion on the issue has shifted dramatically in Israel after two years of war, and this is now arguably the most volatile political issue facing the Prime Minister.

The Legal Struggle

Politicians are currently considering a piece of legislation to terminate the special status given to yeshiva scholars engaged in Torah study, created when the State of Israel was established in 1948.

This arrangement was struck down by Israel's High Court of Justice almost 20 years ago. Temporary arrangements to maintain it were officially terminated by the judiciary last year, forcing the cabinet to start enlisting the Haredi sector.

Some 24,000 draft notices were sent out last year, but merely about 1,200 Haredi conscripts enlisted, according to military testimony presented to lawmakers.

Friction Spill Into Violence

Strains are boiling over onto the public squares, with lawmakers now deliberating a new legislative proposal to force Haredi males into national service in the same way as other secular Israelis.

Two representatives were confronted this month by radical elements, who are incensed with the legislative debate of the draft legislation.

Recently, a specialized force had to assist enforcement personnel who were surrounded by a big group of Haredi men as they sought to apprehend a alleged conscription dodger.

Such incidents have prompted the establishment of a new messaging system named "Emergency Alert" to send out instant alerts through ultra-Orthodox communities and summon demonstrators to prevent arrests from occurring.

"Israel is a Jewish nation," remarked Shmuel Orbach. "You can't fight against religious practice in a Jewish country. It doesn't work."

A World Separate

But the shifts blowing through Israel have not reached the walls of the Torah academy in a Haredi stronghold, an Haredi enclave on the fringes of Tel Aviv.

Inside the classroom, young students learn in partnerships to discuss the Torah, their brightly coloured school notebooks popping against the seats of white shirts and small black kippahs.

"Arrive late at night, and you will see a significant portion are engaged in learning," the dean of the academy, Rabbi Tzemach Mazuz, explained. "Through religious study, we protect the soldiers in the field. This constitutes our service."

Haredi Jews maintain that continuous prayer and spiritual pursuit protect Israel's soldiers, and are as vital to its military success as its advanced weaponry. This conviction was accepted by previous governments in the previous eras, he said, but he acknowledged that Israel was changing.

Growing Societal Anger

The ultra-Orthodox population has grown substantially its proportion of the country's people over the past seven decades, and now constitutes around one in seven. A policy that originated as an deferment for a few hundred Torah scholars became, by the onset of the recent conflict, a cohort of approximately 60,000 men exempt from the draft.

Opinion polls indicate support for drafting the Haredim is growing. A survey in July found that an overwhelming percentage of secular and traditional Jews - including a large segment in Netanyahu's own right-wing Likud party - backed sanctions for those who declined a call-up notice, with a firm majority in favor of removing privileges, the right to travel, or the electoral participation.

"It makes me feel there are citizens who live in this country without contributing," one off-duty soldier in Tel Aviv commented.

"In my view, no matter how devout, [it] should be an excuse not to fulfill your duty to your country," said a young woman. "Being a native, I find it somewhat unreasonable that you want to avoid service just to engage in religious study all day."

Voices from Within Bnei Brak

Backing for broadening conscription is also expressed by traditional Jews outside the ultra-Orthodox sector, like a Bnei Brak inhabitant, who is a neighbor of the academy and notes observant but non-Haredi Jews who do perform national service while also engaging in religious study.

"I am frustrated that ultra-Orthodox people don't perform military service," she said. "It's unfair. I also believe in the Jewish law, but there's a proverb in Hebrew - 'Safra and Saifa' – it means the scripture and the defense together. That is the path, until the messianic era."

The resident manages a local tribute in her city to local soldiers, both religious and secular, who were lost in conflict. Long columns of photographs {