Flagship newspapers of Israel’s ultra-Orthodox parties declared “war” Thursday morning on efforts to enforce draft orders for Haredi men, prompting an outcry from both coalition and opposition lawmakers.
The headlines were printed after two yeshiva students were arrested on Wednesday for evading the draft. Following the arrests, a spokesman for Rabbi Dov Lando, spiritual leader for the United Torah Judaism party’s Degel HaTorah faction, said Israel had “declared war on yeshiva students.”
The banner headlines in Shas’s HaDerech and Degel Hatorah’s Yated Neeman papers were both laid out in bold white letters on a black background: Yated Neeman’s front page said simply “War,” while HaDerech’s read, “A war for God,” while adding that the Haredi world was “prepared for a fierce struggle.”
HaMevaser, a paper affiliated with MK Meir Porush of UTJ’s Agudat Yisrael faction, also called the situation a “war,” railing against the “conscription decree” and topping its front page with a quote from the Passover Haggadah about the enemies of the Jewish people “rising up to destroy us” throughout history.
Shas and UTJ are at the forefront of a fight to pass legislation legalizing the de facto military draft exemptions ultra-Orthodox men have enjoyed for decades. After that arrangement was struck down by the High Court of Justice last year, the army began sending out and enforcing draft orders while, in tandem, a battle began in the Knesset over how to regulate Haredi enlistment.
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The front page of Shas’ HaDerech, Thursday, August 7, 2025. (Screenshot)
The legislative debate is taking place as the IDF fights the ongoing war in Gaza, which the government is expected to intensify this week. The military has said that it faces an immediate shortage of manpower, and against that backdrop, MKs from both sides of the aisle condemned the Haredi papers’ declaration of an ideological “war.”
“An update for the readers of Yated Neeman: There is indeed a war in Israel, but it is in a different place, and people are actually being killed in it,” Opposition Leader Yair Lapid posted on X.
Yisrael Beytenu MK Oded Forer called the headlines a “desecration of God’s name,” quoting a verse from the biblical Book of Numbers: “Shall your brothers go to war while you sit here?”
And Zvi Sukkot, a member of the coalition’s Religious Zionism party, posted, “No one is pouring more gasoline on the bonfire of hatred and polarization against the Haredi community than the editor of Yated Neeman, Yisrael Friedman.
“He knows very well that there are currently countless people in Israel paying the price of the terrible, real war happening outside” and “chooses to deliberately poke a finger in the eye” of those who “have lost what is most precious to them,” Sukkot declared, calling on members of the Haredi community to cancel their subscriptions to the periodical.
Zvi Sukkot attends a Religious Zionism Party meeting at the Knesset, January 23, 2023. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
Some 80,000 ultra-Orthodox men aged 18 to 24 are currently believed to be eligible for military service, but have not enlisted. The IDF has said it urgently needs 12,000 recruits, due to the strain on standing and reserve forces during the ongoing war against Hamas in Gaza and other military challenges. Around 2,700 Haredim in total joined the army over the past year.
Haredi leaders say military service is a threat to their way of life and would keep ultra-Orthodox men from studying Torah. On Wednesday, Lando held an “emergency consultation” with Haredi activists at his home in Bnei Brak, in order to arrive at “a consensus for a response” among the various Haredi subgroups.
“The State of Israel has declared war on yeshiva students. Haredi Judaism will embark on a global struggle like never before,” a spokesman for Lando, one of the most prominent rabbinic leaders of the so-called “Lithuanian” stream of ultra-Orthodoxy, declared in a statement.
The papers portrayed the arrests as an escalation. The two brothers were sentenced to 13 and 17 days’ detention by a military court.
“Two brothers were arrested in the dead of night from their home and sent to prison for simply studying Torah,” HaMevaser said, adding that “this is no longer theoretical, this is a war.”
“We need to be prepared for the most far-reaching steps to protect the world of Torah,” the paper quoted Porush as saying.
Rabbis Dov Lando (left) and Moshe Hillel Hirsch (center) attend an anti-enlistment conference organized by the Vaad HaYeshivot (Yeshiva Committee), July 31, 2025. (Shuki Lehrer)
Yated Neeman accused Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara of “leading a draconian campaign” in an effort “to push the state authorities into an irreversible clash with Torah-observant Haredi Judaism,” adding that efforts to enforce the law against draft evaders had crossed a “red line.”
HaDerech likewise blamed Baharav-Miara as well as the High Court, and described the Haredi community’s “fury and disgust” at the “contemptible” actions of the military leadership.
Members of Shas’s ruling Council of Torah Sages were engaged in discussions “to decide on the methods of struggle ahead of the determined campaign that will shock the entire world,” it said.
“We will fight with dedication for every yeshiva student, we will not give up on anyone,” the paper quoted senior rabbis as saying. “All members of Haredi Judaism must prepare for the great campaign.”
Likud MK Boaz Bismuth (left) and United Torah Judaism chairman Yitzhak Goldknopf (right) attend a meeting of the Knesset House Committee, August 4, 2025. (Dani Shem-Tov/ Office of the Knesset Spokesperson)
At the same time, discussions over an enlistment bill have continued after Likud MK Boaz Bismuth took the helm of the Knesset’s Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee. He replaced MK Yuli Edelstein, who was pushed out after insisting on a bill that levied harsh sanctions on Haredi draft evaders.
Bismuth was elected in hopes of reaching a compromise with the Haredi parties and the committee is slated to hold its first discussion on the topic of enlistment under his leadership next week.
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