{"id":480674,"date":"2026-06-07T11:18:15","date_gmt":"2026-06-07T11:18:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/480674\/"},"modified":"2026-06-07T11:18:15","modified_gmt":"2026-06-07T11:18:15","slug":"the-violent-ultra-orthodox-fight-against-the-draft-is-an-ostensible-holy-war-against-the-state","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/480674\/","title":{"rendered":"The violent ultra-Orthodox fight against the draft is an ostensible holy war against the state"},"content":{"rendered":"

Anyone who was surprised by the violent attack<\/a> on the home and property of Supreme Court Deputy President Justice Noam Sohlberg on Wednesday completely misread the situation on the ground and was not attuned to the intensity of the hatred that has been developing for years in the ultra-Orthodox community toward the State of Israel and its institutions.<\/p>\n

Anyone who was surprised fails to understand that this is a religious-extremist phenomenon that is not subject to formulas of compromise or moderation. This is an existential ultra-Orthodox holy war in the ostensible service of God, and it is one they feel they must never abandon.<\/p>\n

The shattered windows, broken flowerpots, and wrecked car of Justice Sohlberg are part of this religious crusade. Had he fallen into the rioters\u2019 hands, his fate, too, would likely have been sealed due to the \u201csins\u201d of conscription the ultra-Orthodox attribute to him.<\/p>\n

\u201cGod is our king, and we are His servants
The holy Torah is our life, and to it we are bound
In the rule of the heretics we do not believe
And their laws we do not heed
In the path of the Torah we will go through fire and water
In the path of the Torah we will go to sanctify the name of Heaven.\u201d<\/p>\n

These are the simple words of the anthem that nowadays accompanies every ultra-Orthodox youth when he goes out to block roads, break into prisons in an attempt to free draft dodgers, threaten enlistment candidates seeking to join the army, or besiege and vandalize the homes of people including Brig. Gen. Yuval Yamin, commander of the Military Police, and Sohlberg \u2014 representatives of the rule of the heretics. As far as the ultra-Orthodox are concerned, this is the path of the Torah.<\/p>\n

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In the past, this anthem was the preserve of Neturei Karta, a reclusive fringe sect that most ultra-Orthodox disavowed. Anyone who sang \u201cin the rule of the heretics\u201d in the alleyways of Mea Shearim was considered a \u201cmeshuggeneh\u201d (crazy in Yiddish).<\/p>\n

\t\"\"<\/a>
\n\t\tPolice detain an ultra-Orthodox man during a protest against Haredi enlistment to the IDF outside a military recruitment center in Jerusalem, November 12, 2025. (Chaim Goldberg\/Flash90)<\/p>\n

Today, against the backdrop of the struggles over the ultra-Orthodox enlistment in the IDF, this inciting refrain has become the most popular of all. The meaning is clear.<\/p>\n

I once met a yeshiva student on the Chords Bridge<\/a> at the entrance to Jerusalem during a huge demonstration against drafting ultra-Orthodox youths into the army, an event during which a young protester lost his life after falling to his death from a high crane.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are not Israelis, and this country does not interest us,\u201d the yeshiva student told me. \u201cYou need to understand that. We are servants of God, and you cannot take us out of there.\u201d<\/p>\n

The war against the draft \u2014 which will only grow increasingly violent because the protesters view it as God\u2019s command \u2014 has united the entire ultra-Orthodox street behind the extremist struggle led by the Jerusalem Faction, which was also once a fringe element in the ultra-Orthodox society.<\/p>\n

On Monday, I sat in the Knesset gallery as former minister Meir Porush of United Torah Judaism delivered an unrestrained speech from the podium on the plenum floor against the police and the courts. When he stepped down from the podium, Porush continued his protest, shouting \u201cRomans\u201d and \u201cBolsheviks\u201d in every direction.<\/p>\n

\t\"\"<\/a>
\n\t\tUnited Torah Judaism MK Meir Porush attends the Jerusalem Masters 2024 chess event, at Safra Square in Jerusalem, September 26, 2024. (Yonatan Sindel\/Flash90)<\/p>\n

For Porush \u2014 who is a symbol of the ultra-Orthodox mainstream and the son of a veteran family of Haredi public representatives, including ministers, MKs, and mayors \u2014 the government in Israel is no longer Jewish, and the law enforcement authorities are antisemitic, just like the Roman Emperor Hadrian, who imposed edicts of extermination on the Jews after suppressing the Bar Kokhba revolt.<\/p>\n

The hundreds of ultra-Orthodox who boarded buses and cars to reach Sohlberg\u2019s home in Alon Shvut set out on a revolt against the Romans and Bolsheviks who now sit in the Knesset, the High Court of Justice, and the police.<\/p>\n

The large kippa on Sohlberg\u2019s head did not help him, nor did his conservative approach, his right-wing positions, or his life in a West Bank settlement. Although he has long been championed by the Israeli right as its most conservative bulwark on the Supreme Court, none of that mattered. The moment he joined the unanimous ruling mandating the conscription of yeshiva students and ordered the police to carry out its duty, he became an enemy. Not only of the ultra-Orthodox, but of God.<\/p>\n

And so, even after the violent riot in Sohlberg\u2019s yard, the ultra-Orthodox response was, by and large, sympathetic and understanding\u2026 of the rioters. Everything was phrased in the style of \u201cyes, but.\u201d United Torah Judaism, Shas, and even Chabad issued weak statements of condemnation, but hurried to attach criticisms of the judge, the High Court, and the state.<\/p>\n

\t\"\"<\/a>
\n\t\tDamage caused during a protest by ultra-Orthodox Jews against the jailing of yeshiva students who failed to comply with an army recruitment order, at the home of Supreme Court Deputy President Noam Sohlberg in the settlement of Alon Shvut, June 3, 2026. (Chaim Goldberg\/Flash90)<\/p>\n

The popular ultra-Orthodox commentator Aryeh Ehrlich, a member of Chabad, published a video in which he claimed that \u201cSohlberg threw the first match into the blaze after he forced the police to arrest draft dodgers. Justice Sohlberg does not destroy flowerpots. He destroys the lives of Jews.\u201d<\/p>\n

The bottom line is that the ultra-Orthodox will not go to the army, with or without an exemption law. But they had wanted to receive legal authorization for avoiding the induction center. They expected their political leaders to obtain this mass exemption so that they could dodge the draft quietly and continue receiving enormous financial benefits from a state they do not truly recognize, nor will they, until it becomes a halachic state.<\/p>\n

The moment the ministers and MKs failed to arrange this sweeping exemption for them \u2014 and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu acknowledged<\/a> to Haredi political leaders a month ago that a law to that effect would not pass in the near future \u2014\u00a0 and authorities began arresting draft dodgers here and there, the floodgates opened.<\/p>\n

Incidentally, one of the common claims against the ultra-Orthodox rabbis and politicians concerns tactics. A senior United Torah Judaism figure elaborated: \u201cFor all these years, yeshiva students would receive a deferment of service, which would become an exemption. This was an accepted practice that David Ben-Gurion agreed to. Following the war, a difficulty arose. Everyone began asking, \u2018What about those who do not study?\u2019 Here the leaders began to stammer. The authorities showed them pictures of ultra-Orthodox youths who dropped out of full-time Torah \u2014and they fell into the trap.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOur leaders should have focused only on the yeshiva students, preserving this status quo,\u201d he continued. \u201cNow they have become entangled and are fighting over the yeshiva students as well. About this it is said: \u2018If you grasp too much, you grasp nothing.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\"\"<\/a>
\n\t\tUltra-Orthodox men protest at the home of Supreme Court Deputy President Noam Sohlberg in the settlement of Alon Shvut, June 3, 2026. (Chaim Goldberg\/Flash90)<\/p>\n

The rabbis are indeed unwilling to give up on ultra-Orthodox young men, even at the fringes of their society and in the periphery, out of concern that their communities will be diluted. In reality, the truth is probably the exact opposite.<\/p>\n

Someone who enlists in IDF units catered to ultra-Orthodox servicemen, such as the \u201cHasmoneans\u201d or \u201cNetzah Yehuda\u201d brigades, may perhaps be able to preserve his ultra-Orthodox identity during his service. But someone who hangs around downtown Jerusalem \u2014 notorious as a nighttime hangout for at-risk youth \u2014 or frequents the Central Bus Station and the rowdy, secular soccer culture of Beitar games at Teddy Stadium, is on a much faster path to abandoning religious observance.<\/p>\n

But the draft is only part of the story. Sohlberg demands equality in sharing the burden. The ultra-Orthodox who rioted in his yard do not want to hear about anything except an exemption. Many of those who were arrested even refused to hand over their Israeli identity cards to the police, or simply swapped them among themselves.<\/p>\n

\t\"\"<\/a>
\n\t\tUltra-Orthodox men riot against the jailing of yeshiva students who failed to comply with a military draft order, at the home of Supreme Court Deputy President Noam Sohlberg in the settlement of Alon Shvut, June 3, 2026. (Chaim Goldberg\/Flash90)<\/p>\n

So what will happen next? Things will only get worse.<\/p>\n

This week in the Knesset, I overheard a conversation between MK Yitzhak Goldknopf of United Torah Judaism and a senior ultra-Orthodox journalist who knows the reality on the ground well.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have not yet reached the peak,\u201d the journalist warned Goldknopf. \u201cOnly when we hit the breaking point will something give. There will be severe demonstrations, the violence will continue, there will be war in the streets, maybe even fatalities; there will be a massive blowup and mass arrests. Only then will everyone try to calm the situation, and we will gain more time. In any case, we will not go to the army.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Anyone who was surprised by the violent attack on the home and property of Supreme Court Deputy President…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":480675,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[85,46,43,220567,12185,122898],"class_list":["post-480674","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-israel","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-news","tag-noam-sohlberg","tag-ultra-orthodox","tag-ultra-orthodox-draft"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/480674","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=480674"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/480674\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/480675"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=480674"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=480674"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=480674"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}