{"id":545934,"date":"2026-07-17T11:28:09","date_gmt":"2026-07-17T11:28:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/545934\/"},"modified":"2026-07-17T11:28:09","modified_gmt":"2026-07-17T11:28:09","slug":"israels-government-knew-the-risks-of-haredi-draft-evasion-and-ignored-them","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/545934\/","title":{"rendered":"Israel’s government knew the risks of haredi draft evasion and ignored them"},"content":{"rendered":"

There are few moments in a nation\u2019s history when its citizens can watch events unfold in real time and say they witnessed their own government knowingly, deliberately, and willingly weaken the country.<\/p>\n

That is exactly what this government has done over the past few days by passing two laws designed to allow ultra-Orthodox (haredi) Israelis to continue evading military service while shielding them from the consequences of breaking the law.<\/p>\n

The first is the Basic Law that elevates Torah study<\/a> to a national value on par with military service. The second, passed Tuesday night, effectively prevents draft evaders from being arrested despite existing laws requiring them to serve.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Together, these laws, backed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu\u2019s coalition<\/a>, send a devastating message.<\/p>\n

At a moment when the IDF says it is short nearly 15,000 soldiers<\/a>, reservists have served hundreds of days with no end in sight, and Israel\u2019s enemies are rebuilding in Gaza, Lebanon, and Iran, this is about far more than equality before the law.<\/p>\n

\"IDFIDF soldiers operate in southern Lebanon, published July 15, 2026. (credit: IDF SPOKESPERSON’S UNIT)<\/p>\n

It weakens the military, erodes the social contract, and once again places narrow political interests ahead of Israel\u2019s national security.<\/p>\n

What is hard to swallow is just how close the parallels are to the judicial overhaul.<\/a>\u00a0
After October 7, Netanyahu repeatedly argued that no one had warned him Hamas was preparing for war or that Israel\u2019s internal divisions were creating dangerous vulnerabilities. We now know that was not true.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The head of Military Intelligence\u2019s Research Division at the time had sent him a number of letters warning exactly this, and the IDF chief of staff then, Herzi Halevi, famously tried to meet with Netanyahu just before the Knesset voted on a key judicial overhaul, but was rebuffed.<\/p>\n

Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) chief Ronen Bar also warned that Israel\u2019s enemies saw Israel\u2019s domestic crisis as a sign of weakness.<\/p>\n

Those warnings were all ignored, and the consequences are well known \u2013 an attack that was the darkest day in Israel\u2019s history, followed by three years of war that still do not seem to have a clear ending.<\/p>\n

I am not suggesting that these draft laws will lead to another October 7. But there is no ambiguity \u2013 the warnings are not buried inside classified letters. Instead, they are being delivered publicly by the IDF itself.<\/p>\n

The military has been saying for months that it does not have enough soldiers. The number \u2013 nearly 15,000 \u2013 is staggering.<\/p>\n

Reservists continue to carry the burden of this war despite having already served hundreds of days, leaving behind businesses, careers, and families while answering call-up after call-up because the country needs them.<\/p>\n

But instead of doing what it can to alleviate the burden, the government\u2019s response is to extend compulsory service for those already serving and ask reservists to continue carrying the load.<\/p>\n

This is despite the fact that tens of thousands of healthy young Israelis who are capable of serving remain outside the system simply because they are haredi.<\/p>\n

Instead of bringing them into the army, this government is doing everything possible to cement their exemption.<\/p>\n

This debate is not about faith or observance. A person can value Torah learning while also understanding that everyone needs to serve in the IDF.<\/p>\n

There have been countless examples of deeply religious soldiers studying Talmud inside tanks, teaching Torah classes from the battlefields of Gaza and Lebanon, and combining strict, serious religious commitment with meaningful military service.<\/p>\n

Torah learning has preserved the Jewish people for thousands of years and remains one of the foundations of Israeli society, but it does not stand alone. No society can survive without sharing in the burden of the collective. That is what the haredim refuse to accept.<\/p>\n

Politics over national security<\/p>\n

Netanyahu knows all this. So do the members of his coalition who voted for the two laws this week. They also know that their Likud and Religious Zionist Party voters do not support giving the ultra-Orthodox a continued exemption from service.<\/p>\n

The problem is that Netanyahu\u2019s overriding objective today is not about what is right for the country. It is about preserving his political bloc for the day after the election on October 27.
\u00a0
Every concession made to United Torah Judaism and Shas is designed to ensure that those parties remain loyal to him when recommendations are made to the president and the race to form Israel\u2019s next government begins.<\/p>\n

I know that a lot of people think that this is impossible because both former prime minister Naftali Bennett and Yashar party leader Gadi Eisenkot have promised they will not sit with the ultra-Orthodox and that they will make sure to pass the necessary laws to draft them.<\/p>\n

That is all true right now. But in the aftermath of an election, if Eisenkot and Bennett have the opportunity to sever the ultra-Orthodox alliance with Netanyahu and bring the haredim into a coalition, they will potentially do so.<\/p>\n

Even if some voters are upset that they have reneged and backtracked on their promise, it will be accepted and swallowed because it will lead to the removal of Netanyahu from office.<\/p>\n

At the end of the day, the voters who support Eisenkot, Bennett, and Lapid do so mostly because of their desire to remove Netanyahu. How do I know this?<\/p>\n

Think back to the so-called \u201cchange government<\/a>\u201d formed by Bennett and opposition leader Yair Lapid in 2021, and ask why that government, which did not have ultra-Orthodox members, did not draft yeshiva students?<\/p>\n

The answer is because, in his heart, Bennett hoped that one day he would be able to bring the ultra-Orthodox into the government. He hoped that he could sever the alliance that Netanyahu had forged with them, and therefore, he didn\u2019t want to ruin his chances.<\/p>\n

So, he refused to take the steps then that were necessary to draft them.<\/p>\n

Now, though, what makes this moment so troubling is that the government knows exactly what is at stake. This is after October 7. No one can claim they do not understand the potential consequences.<\/p>\n

For decades, Israeli governments have operated on one basic principle: security comes first. Coalition agreements, budgets, and legislation were ultimately expected to serve the needs of the defense establishment.<\/p>\n

Here, the opposite has happened. These laws may help Netanyahu preserve his coalition and improve his chances of remaining prime minister after the election, but that is not what leadership is meant to be about.<\/p>\n

Leadership is supposed to be about making difficult decisions for the good of the country, even when they carry political costs. What we saw this week is the opposite: sacrificing the country\u2019s interests for short-term political survival.<\/p>\n

October 7 taught Israel the price of ignoring clear warnings. Today, the IDF is warning, publicly and clearly, that it does not have enough soldiers and that these laws will only make that shortage worse.<\/p>\n

No one will be able to say today that they didn\u2019t know the price of their actions. And if the consequences come, history will record that this time the government knew exactly what it was doing.<\/p>\n

The writer is a co-founder of the MEAD Forum, a senior fellow at the Jewish People Policy Institute, and the former editor-in-chief of The Jerusalem Post. His latest book (with Amir Bohbot), While Israel Slept, is a bestseller in the United States.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There are few moments in a nation\u2019s history when its citizens can watch events unfold in real time…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":545935,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[97546,49,35647,12186,11071,1031,85,46,9552,43,70666],"class_list":["post-545934","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-israel","tag-basic-law","tag-benjamin-netanyahu","tag-coalition","tag-haredi-draft","tag-haredim","tag-idf","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-national-security","tag-news","tag-torah"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/545934","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=545934"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/545934\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/545935"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=545934"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=545934"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=545934"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}