The Haredi Draft Crisis Is only part of the story

Peloni:  Avi Abelow articulates so well the core feature which brings us strength and which makes us powerful: unity.

The battles over the draft, national identity, Judea and Samaria, against terrorism, and against international pressure are all part of the struggle over whether the Jewish people will continue embracing their national revival or retreat from it.

Avi Abelow | Jun 22, 2026

The news in Israel is a worrying surge of haredi protests over new legislation to address the IDF draft. Roads are blocked. There are violent clashes with the police. A Supreme Court judge was attacked in his home.

Thousands of haredi Jews are protesting against sanctions implemented by the Attorney General.

Reserve soldiers from all sectors are furious that they continue to carry the burden of war while an entire sector remains largely exempt from military service. Families are exhausted after multiple rounds and hundreds of days with a husband, father, or brother serving on the front lines. They resent the lack of uniform rule of law and that they bear the burden while others do not.

This is a real crisis, without a doubt.

But I believe a much bigger story lies beneath the surface. The draft is merely the battlefield on which a much deeper struggle is being fought. Understanding it is essential in understanding the situation in Israel today.

We are living through one of the most extraordinary periods in Jewish history. For close to three years, Israel has been fighting a war against a 1400-year-old jihadist enemy openly committed to its destruction. Sunni Hamas, Shiite Hezbollah, the Islamic Republic of Iran, and the Houthis in Yemen.

All global jihadi movements openly declare that Israel must be destroyed. They openly declare that the Jewish people must be defeated.

And yet, despite everything the Sunni-Shiite jihadi world has thrown at us, we are not collapsing. On the contrary. We are becoming stronger. That’s the miracle.

October 7th was supposed to destroy us. Instead, it awakened us. A generation that was disconnected from its Jewish identity is rediscovering its roots. A generation that viewed Judaism as merely cultural is rediscovering that they are part of something far bigger than themselves.

We have seen an upsurge in Israel teenage boys wearing tzitzit, and teenage girls going to Selichot services. Nachal Oz, one of Israel’s secular pioneers in the kibbutz movement, requested and dedicated a Torah scroll for prayer services.

Israeli society is becoming more connected to Jewish identity, to Jewish history, to Jewish destiny, and relating to the land of Israel as the land of the Jews more than ever before.

Israeli society is more connected to the understanding that we are one nation, not just citizens sharing a state, and a nation with a mission.

This all has developed while at the same time, Israel is emerging as a geopolitical power unlike anything we have seen in modern Jewish history.

The Jewish people are no longer victims, no longer dependent on others for survival. We are defending ourselves and defeating enemies who outnumber us. Israel continues to build a thriving economy, advancing technologically, and returning to lands our ancestors could only dream of seeing rebuilt.

This is an extraordinary national revival.

Opposition emerges as something holy is built. This has been true throughout Jewish history. The greater the potential for growth, the stronger the forces that try to stop it.

That is how I view much of what we’re seeing unfold, not only in terms of the haredi draft crisis, but across Israeli society as a whole: increased efforts to spread hatred between secular and religious Jews, between settlers and non-settlers, endless attempts to convince Israelis that those who advocated accepting international dictates are leaders capable of bringing us to victory.

International organizations, are funding groups dedicated to sowing division inside Israeli society. Relentless campaigns have popped up portraying Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria as the primary obstacle to peace while ignoring ongoing terror attacks.

While so much attention is focused on internal division, something else is happening. Terror attacks are on the rise. An Arab-Israeli citizen went on a shooting spree near Kochav Yair last week, killing one man and wounding four others. Jewish families driving on the roads of Judea and Samaria are targeted, soldiers are attacked, and entire communities are living under growing security threats.

The Palestinian Authority continues to educate another generation to hate Jews and glorify those who murder them. Terrorists continue to be released and celebrated as heroes. Children are taught that all of Israel is occupied land.

Yet somehow, despite this reality, much of the public conversation remains focused on blaming Jews rather than confronting the ideology driving the jihadi violence we are up against.

Yes, we are seeing disturbing divisions inside Israeli society. It is not a separate issue, however.

The more Israel grows stronger, the more our enemies seek to weaken us from within, because they understand something too many Israelis forget. Our enemies cannot defeat us militarily when we are united. That’s why every fault line within Israeli society is a target.

The goal is always the same: to turn Jews against one another while the real enemy continues advancing.

For months, Israel was consumed by internal political warfare while Hamas watched carefully and concluded that Israeli society was fractured and vulnerable.

Today, as terror attacks rise and our enemies continue searching for opportunities to strike, we cannot afford to repeat that mistake.

The growing terrorism directed against Israelis is not occurring in a vacuum; it is part of a broader struggle against Jewish sovereignty itself.

These issues are all connected. The battles over the draft, national identity, Judea and Samaria, against terrorism, and against international pressure. At their core, they are all part of the same struggle over whether the Jewish people will continue embracing their national revival or retreat from it.

We see a global media obsessed with every Israeli mistake while refusing to acknowledge the evil ideology within Islam that drives the jihadist war against civilization itself. We see anti-Israel hatred exploding throughout the Western world, and governments pressuring Israel to stop fighting before victory is achieved.

Through it all, one thing remains constant: the overwhelming refusal to confront the actual threat: jihadist ideology that is openly committed to destroying Israel and ultimately undermining every free society on earth.

That should give us pause.There is real pain over the issue of haredi Jews in Israel being drafted into the IDF. The frustration felt by reserve soldiers and their families is legitimate. After months and years of sacrifice, many Israelis cannot understand why the burden is not being shared more equally.

Most Israelis understand that serious Torah study is a foundational Jewish value for the Jewish state.

But they also see the many draft-eligible haredi young men who receive exemptions and do not learn Torah in any Yeshiva. At a time when soldiers and reservists are carrying an extraordinary burden, Israelis reasonably expect those young men to share in the responsibility of defending the Jewish people and the Jewish state and for the IDF to create the appropriate conditions for them to maintain their religious lifestyle, like the new Chasmonaim unit, that includes Torah study time together with army training

At the same time, there is also genuine frustration within the haredi community. Many haredim sincerely believe promises made to them over the years regarding service frameworks, religious accommodations, and protection of their way of life have repeatedly been violated. Many do not trust the military establishment and believe parts of the security and legal establishment are less interested in integrating haredim into military service and more interested in reshaping haredi society itself. Ignoring those concerns does not solve the problem. It only deepens the divide.

The challenge before us is not to defeat one another but to find a path that strengthens the entire nation. Whether one wears a knitted kippah, a black hat, or no kippah at all, we are all living through the same historic moment.

The return of Jewish power, of Jewish sovereignty, of Jewish purpose, and confidence comes with real growing pains. Every national rebirth comes with them; the process was never going to be easy.

Every family has disagreements, and every nation has internal struggles. The question is whether we allow those disagreements to blind us to the bigger picture, when that is what we need to focus on.

The Jewish people are stronger today than we were before October 7th. Our enemies are weaker. Our national identity is stronger. Our connection to Jewish history is stronger, our understanding of who we are is stronger.

We have serious problems to solve, including the haredi draft issue. We must solve them, but only while keeping sight of what is happening around us.

We are under attack from so many directions because something extraordinary – dare I say holy? – is happening. The Jewish people are rising. Leaving behind the paradigm of being victims and emerging as a nation of victors. There are forces, physical, political, ideological, and spiritual, that desperately want to stop that rise.

They will not succeed. The story of Israel today is not ultimately a story of division; it is a story of national rebirth. It is a story of a people returning to themselves.

Despite all the noise, all the protests, all the political battles, and all the attempts to divide us, that story is moving forward before our eyes every single day.

The Jewish people are winning. And that is precisely why the battle against us has become so fierce.

Avi Abelow is the host of The Pulse of Israel daily video podcast and CEO of 12Tribe Films Foundation, which produces media content highlighting Israel’s biblical, historical, and strategic importance. Abelow hosts the Annual Pulse of Israel Conference in Jerusalem. This year’s conference, “From Victims to Victors: The Jewish People’s Next Chapter,” will take place in July. Learn more and register at PulseofIsrael.com. Abelow is the 2025 recipient of Ari Fuld Project’s “Lion of Zion Award.”

June 24, 2026 | 7 Comments »

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  1. Why Marxists oppose Israel drafting Haredi Jews into its army

    https://themilitant.com/2025/11/07/why-marxists-oppose-israel-drafting-haredi-jews-into-its-army/

    Unusual “blast from the past” Man bites Commie article. Felix (The Zionist Trot) would have been proud.

    “And Now for something completely different” – Monty Python

    Twilight Zone theme “ “You unlock this door with the key of imagination. Beyond it is another dimension: a dimension of sound, a dimension of sight, a dimension of mind. You’re moving into a land of both shadow and substance, of things and ideas. You’ve just crossed over into… the Twilight Zone.” – Rod Serling intro

    😀

    Spoiler alert: It’s pro-Israel and pro-Bibi . Very.

    “ who said politics make strange bedfellows?” +6 “ The exact phrase “politics makes strange bedfellows” is widely attributed to the American essayist and novelist Charles Dudley Warner, who popularized it in his 1870 book My Summer in a Garden.The idea, however, is much older and was adapted from a line in William Shakespeare’s 1611 play The Tempest (Act 2, Scene 2), where the character Trinculo says:”Misery acquaints a man with strange bedfellows.”Over time, “misery” or “adversity” evolved into “politics” to describe how election cycles and shared interests force rival politicians or wildly different groups to form unlikely alliances.If you are interested in seeing this play, you can check local theater listings, like those on Playbill, to see if any New York companies are currently producing The Tempest.”

  2. hari seldon yohanan ben zakkai +10 Both Hari Seldon and Yohanan ben Zakkai are legendary figures renowned for developing long-term strategies to ensure the survival of their civilizations following an impending, catastrophic collapse.The Survival StrategiesHari Seldon: The fictional creator of “psychohistory” in Isaac Asimov’s Foundation series. Using mathematical sociology, he predicted the imminent fall of the Galactic Empire. To shorten a subsequent 30,000-year dark age to just one millennium, he established the secret “Foundations” to preserve human knowledge and rebuild civilization.Yohanan ben Zakkai: A real historical Jewish sage and leader during the 1st century. Anticipating the Roman destruction of Jerusalem and the Second Temple, he famously faked his own death and was smuggled out of the besieged city in a coffin. He negotiated with Roman General Vespasian to establish a new center of Torah study in the town of Yavneh. This ensured the survival of Judaism independent of a physical Temple.Key ParallelsThe Visionary Realists: Both correctly deduced the end of their worlds when others remained in denial.The “Ark” Concept: Both abandoned the doomed capital (the Galactic Empire’s core or Jerusalem) to set up localized, highly controlled safe havens.The Preservation of Knowledge: Both engineered calculated repositories of wisdom (the Encyclopedia Galactica for Seldon; the academies and the oral tradition for Zakkai) to serve as seeds for a future civilization.Would you like to explore the historical accounts of the Yavneh academy or delve deeper into how Asimov may have drawn on Jewish history to create Seldon’s Foundation? Let me know where you’d like to focus!

    • hari seldon’s stages +16 In Isaac Asimov’s Foundation series, “Hari Seldon’s stages” typically refer to the Seldon Crises, which are predetermined social, economic, and political turning points. Over 1,000 years, the First Foundation faces a sequence of these narrowing crises, each forcing them along a single path to rebuild a Galactic Empire.For a visual breakdown of how psychohistory models the fall of the empire and structures these crises, this video explains the fundamental science behind Seldon’s plan:4mFOUNDATION Isaac Asimov’s PSYCHOHISTORY ExplainedYouTube · Pete PeppersThe Seldon Plan & The Two FoundationsHari Seldon used psychohistory (a mathematical science combining history, sociology, and statistical mechanics) to predict the future of human civilization on a massive scale. Knowing the Galactic Empire was destined to collapse, he designed a plan to compress a 30,000-year dark age into just 1,000 years.The Seldon Plan was executed using two distinct groups:First Foundation: A visible colony of physical scientists and engineers established on Terminus. They advance technology and deal with the external crises that arise.Second Foundation: A covert group of mentalics and telepaths stationed elsewhere. Their job is to secretly steer psychohistory, course-correct if the First Foundation deviates, and handle disruptions the math can’t foresee.The 1,000-Year Timeline of CrisesTo transition from the dying First Empire to the Second Empire, Seldon’s math plotted specific crises where the Foundation’s freedom of action is limited to a single, inevitable path.Asimov detailed several of these stages in the core books:The First Crisis (Balance-of-Power): A political dispute involving the nearby Four Kingdoms and the Board of Trustees. The Foundation navigates a threat by using the economic and diplomatic leverage of its superior technology.The Second Crisis (Religion): The Foundation utilizes religious manipulation (Scientism) to convert the surrounding barbarian kingdoms and consolidate its influence in the periphery.The Third Crisis (Trade): The Foundation transitions from religious power to commercial power, relying on independent traders to spread its influence throughout the galaxy.The Fourth Crisis (Foundation and Empire): The First Foundation confronts the remnants of the old Galactic Empire’s military, testing its political power against actual Imperial forces.The Fifth Crisis (Traders vs. Aristocracy): A struggle between the independent traders and the central government/oligarchy of the First Foundation.The Eighth Crisis (Moving the Capital): A much later crisis leading to a critical shift in the broader timeline.The “Deviations” in the PlanSeldon’s mathematical science could only predict mass action, not individual decisions. While the overarching Seldon Plan remained highly reliable, its stages were threatened by unpredictable human anomalies.The most prominent example is The Mule, a mutant warlord with the unique ability to manipulate the emotions of individuals. His unprecedented arrival disrupted the predicted stages of the Seldon Plan, forcing the Second Foundation to step in and adapt.Would you like to know more about the individual Foundation novels (such as Foundation and Empire or Second Foundation), or are you looking for details on how these stages are adapted in the Apple TV+ series?

      • R. Daneel Olivaw is a prominent fictional character created by renowned science fiction author Isaac Asimov, serving as the ultimate connective tissue across his famous Robot, Galactic Empire, and Foundation universes. The initial “R” in his name stands for “Robot,” a standard naming convention in Asimov’s futuristic society.Introduced in the 1954 sci-fi mystery novel The Caves of Steel, Daneel begins his journey as the galaxy’s first “humaniform” robot—constructed with a positronic brain and a synthetic body completely indistinguishable from a human being. Over a fictional lifespan spanning nearly 20,000 years, he evolves from a straight-laced investigator into the secretive, immortal guardian of human civilization.Character Evolution & Major Story ArcsThe Detective Partner (The Robot Series): In his earliest appearances (The Caves of Steel, The Naked Sun, and The Robots of Dawn), Daneel is partnered with human NYPD detective Elijah Baley to solve high-profile murders. Though Baley initially harbors a deep-seated Earthman prejudice against robots, the two eventually forge a legendary, deep friendship that fundamentally changes Daneel’s understanding of humanity.The Birth of the Zeroth Law: In Robots and Empire, Daneel and his telepathic robot companion, R. Giskard Reventlov, realize that the standard Three Laws of Robotics are too restrictive to protect humanity as a whole. Giskard conceptualizes, and Daneel refines, the Zeroth Law of Robotics: “A robot may not harm humanity, or, through inaction, allow humanity to come to harm.” This law supersedes all others and allows Daneel to take a grand-scale, historical approach to stewardship.The Secret Imperial Chancellor (The Foundation Prequels): Under the pseudonyms Eto Demerzel and Chetter Hummin, Daneel operates invisibly at the highest levels of the Galactic Empire on the capital planet, Trantor. During Prelude to Foundation, he manipulates and mentors mathematician Hari Seldon, actively pushing Seldon to invent “psychohistory”—a mathematical science capable of predicting and softening the inevitable collapse of human civilization.The Architect of Galaxia (Foundation and Earth): By the final chronological book, Daneel is living in a hidden base on Earth’s Moon. His positronic brain has reached its absolute physical limit after millennia of memory accumulation. To ensure the long-term survival of the species, Daneel orchestrates the creation of Gaia (a planet-wide shared consciousness) and lays the framework for Galaxia, a defensive, living superorganism encompassing the entire galaxy.Powers and CharacteristicsHumaniform Appearance: Outwardly identical to his co-creator, Dr. Roj Nemennuh Sarton, featuring a broad face and short, bronze hair.Cerebroanalysis & Mentalics: Daneel possesses the ability to read and subtly map out the emotional frequencies of the human brain. After Giskard’s death, Daneel inherits full telepathic “mentalic” powers, allowing him to subtly alter human emotions to guide history without violating his core programming.Functional Immortality: He maintains his existence across thousands of years by periodically manufacturing and replacing his internal components.On-Screen AdaptationsClassic Television: Daneel was portrayed by John Carson in a 1964 British television adaptation of The Caves of Steel (alongside Peter Cushing as Elijah Baley).Apple TV+’s Foundation: In the Apple TV+ Foundation series, the character is adapted as Eto Demerzel, a gender-swapped version played by Laura Birn. Because production rights for the Robot and Foundation intellectual properties were historically fractured, the television show introduces a highly modified backstory for her, diverging significantly from Asimov’s original literary timeline.Would you like a deeper breakdown of how the Zeroth Law logic functions, a summary of his relationship with Elijah Baley, or an overview of how Asimov combined his Robot and Foundation universes?

  3. Email received:

    My daughter is a religious trainee in the idf. She could have been exempted.

    Her superiors felt the need to infringe on times set aside for prayer. There is no need for this in a trainee situation. Fortunately, complaining to the rabbi on the base was effective.

    In another example, she and many others were trapped on a bus for 6 hours, not able to use a toilet. There is no way something like that should happen to trainees. But the officers have excuses.

    This is parallel with the army trying to put women into units with religious men – no respect for those men and their culture.

    They need to show who is boss – but in a way that scorns people and their values.

    Just like the commanding officer on the Gaza border had no respect for the lookouts who tried to give warning before October 7 – he knew better, and their input was not worthy of consideration. No respect.

    Nonetheless, the same culture persists.

    The hareidim know this. And this justifies them.

    It is the responsibility of the top brass to make changes if they want to see changes made – not by coercing people, but by showing them respect.

  4. Avi has brought front and center, that we are still divided as a nation in many ways. That the haredim refuse to serve is one of them, but in my mind, the division caused by 10/7 is still more serious. We have to get to the bottom of this issue first and foremost, preferably before the elections. Those that are hiding behind this crime must be brought to justice. We can argue the issue day in, day out, but it must be resolved.
    The haredim are parasites and some of them even agree. We don’t need them except the very few that actually serve the community. They are probably not behind 10/7, but who knows?

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  5. The Haredi, get money from the state for education but offer no basic modern education in STEM subjects. They avoid sharing the burden of the draft and demand laws to make this kosher. The Likud under Bibi has part and parcel of this ludicrous ongoings.

    Bibi is going to lose the next election to the opposition unless he finds new partners. Many Likud voters do not find the current ongoings with the Haredi tolerable.