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A gathering political storm over drafting Haredi men into the Israel Defense Forces is threatening to undermine Israel's government and fracturing the nation.

The public mood on the question has shifted dramatically in Israel after two years of conflict, and this is now arguably the most volatile political challenge facing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

The Legal Conflict

Legislators are reviewing a draft bill to terminate the exemption granted to Haredi students enrolled in Torah study, instituted when the modern Israel was founded in 1948.

That exemption was ruled illegal by Israel's High Court of Justice two decades ago. Interim measures to extend it were formally ended by the court last year, pressuring the cabinet to begin drafting the ultra-Orthodox population.

Some 24,000 call-up papers were delivered last year, but just approximately 1,200 men from the community reported for duty, according to military testimony shared with lawmakers.

Friction Spill Into Violence

Strains are boiling over onto the public squares, with lawmakers now deliberating a new legislative proposal to force yeshiva students into national service together with other secular Israelis.

Two representatives were confronted this month by hardline activists, who are furious with parliament's discussion of the proposed law.

In a recent incident, a elite police squad had to assist enforcement personnel who were surrounded by a big group of Haredi men as they sought to apprehend a suspected draft-evader.

Such incidents have led to the development of a new alert system named "Black Alert" to rapidly disseminate information through the religious sector and summon activists to prevent arrests from taking place.

"We're a Jewish country," remarked Shmuel Orbach. "You can't fight against religious practice in a Jewish state. It doesn't work."

A World Apart

But the shifts affecting Israel have not reached the walls of the religious seminary in a Haredi stronghold, an Haredi enclave on the fringes of Tel Aviv.

Within the study hall, young students learn in partnerships to analyze the Torah, their distinctive writing books contrasting with the rows of light-colored shirts and small black kippahs.

"Arrive late at night, and you will see a significant portion are engaged in learning," the dean of the yeshiva, a senior rabbi, explained. "By studying Torah, we shield the troops in the field. This is how we contribute."

Ultra-Orthodox believe that constant study and Torah learning defend Israel's armed forces, and are as crucial to its defense as its advanced weaponry. This conviction was endorsed by Israel's politicians in the earlier decades, the rabbi said, but he acknowledged that the nation is evolving.

Rising Public Pressure

The Haredi community has more than doubled its share of Israel's population over the last seventy years, and now constitutes a sizable minority. A policy that originated as an exemption for a few hundred Torah scholars evolved into, by the beginning of the Gaza war, a cohort of some 60,000 men not subject to the conscription.

Polling data indicate support for ending the exemption is growing. A survey in July found that an overwhelming percentage of the broader Jewish public - including a significant majority in the Prime Minister's political base - supported consequences for those who declined a call-up notice, with a firm majority in supporting withdrawing benefits, passports, or the franchise.

"It seems to me there are individuals who live in this country without giving anything back," one military member in Tel Aviv said.

"It is my belief, regardless of piety, [it] should be an reason not to go and serve your state," stated a young woman. "As a citizen by birth, I find it rather absurd that you want to exempt yourself just to study Torah all day."

Views from Inside Bnei Brak

Support for broadening conscription is also coming from observant Jews not part of the Haredi community, like a Bnei Brak inhabitant, who is a neighbor of the seminary and notes religious Zionists who do perform national service while also engaging in religious study.

"It makes me angry that this community don't enlist," she said. "This creates inequality. I also believe in the Torah, but there's a proverb in Jewish tradition - 'The Book and the Sword' – it signifies the Torah and the guns together. That is the path, until the messianic era."

The resident runs a local tribute in her city to fallen servicemen, both religious and secular, who were killed in battle. Lines of photographs {