Avigdor Liberman, the former Israeli defence minister, came out with a cracker in the Knesset this week – funny and perceptive: "Who would have believed it would be easier to enlist Mahmoud Ahmadinejad than the Charedim?"
He was referring to the New York Times’s report that the former Iranian president, whose entire worldview in office boiled down to wiping Israel off the map, was being recruited by the Mossad as a pliant president after the fall of the Tehran regime. It might sound bonkers, but very little is too astounding to be true when it comes to the Mossad.
But while we have no idea if this is true, we do know that the other part of his jibe is all too true. There has been much talk in Israel in recent years of ending the Charedi exemption from military service. That talk gathered pace after Israel’s military response to the October 7 Hamas massacre. Indeed, a 2024 ruling held that there is no proper legal status for the blanket Charedi exemption and the government must draft yeshiva students. The IDF was – is – stretched as never before (it says it needs another 15,000 soldiers merely to tread water) and those reservists who are serving have been enlisted for hundreds of days with no obvious end on the horizon. There are 80,000 Charedi men aged between 18 to 24 who are eligible for military service who have not enlisted.
But this week the Knesset passed two new laws, both of which strengthen the Charedim’s refusal to serve. One is a Basic Law which declares Torah study a “foundational value” of the Jewish people and the State of Israel. Such is the framing of the law that it makes Torah study the only specific value enshrined in a Basic Law, so it now has quasi-constitutional status and de facto places Torah study above all other values. This is in order to make it as difficult as possible for the judiciary to uphold previous rulings that Charedi exemption from military service is illegal and discriminatory. Torah study is now framed as a key foundation of Israel itself.
No wonder Shas party leader Arye Deri rejoiced that the law is “a historic achievement…For the first time, the Jewish state recognised the supreme status of Torah study and of its students.” Opposition leader Yair Lapid had another view: “This is how you are ending your term: by spitting in the face of IDF soldiers.”
A second law bars the authorities from arresting draft dodgers. As Knesset member Chili Tropper put it: “This house is behaving this week as though the war is over: It’s ok to look after draft dodgers. It’s ok to back the evasion of IDF service…. But the war is still here. Our soldiers are in Lebanon right now … and they see clearly that in this house, this week, draft dodgers are preferred to warriors.”
But while the above is about legislative shenanigans – the driver behind these new laws is the forthcoming election on October 27, as Benjamin Netanyahu seeks to cement his coalition – there are other disturbing signs of the growing influence of hardline religious views on Israel itself. This week, for example, it emerged that the largely Charedi city of Bnei Brak is planning on imposing gender segregation on two streets for its 231,000 residents. Despite the Supreme Court banning segregation in 2017, a ruling by rabbis means the city will erect segregation barriers. City officials say this is just the start and there will be more segregated streets. One told the Times of Israel that the instructions are “very clear and speak for themselves. The city’s public, which is committed to obeying the great Torah leaders and heeding their words, will comply with their request.”
It is increasingly clear that the October election will be about more than politics and security. It will be about Israel’s soul. Increasingly, previously unimaginable developments are being normalised as hard liners and extremists who would once have been shunned are handed power and influence.
Even if one puts aside security issues – which will always, rightly, be key to any election – Israelis have a fateful decision to take: is this the future they want?
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