The Political Weapon That Could Decide Israel’s Election

PELONI:  Like a fist, Israelis must unite with a forward looking vision for a better, safer and more prosperous tomorrow.  While differences persist among the nation’s various factions, the most unsettling aspect of Israeli society over the last 5 years has been the effort to actually grow divisions into insurrection, something which ultimately motivated the assault on the Gaza envelop and triggering the war which began soon afterwards.  In the twilight which breached the end of the slaughter and the beginning of the resulting war, Israelis found a strength which stretched beyond the inciting rhetoric and which saw the nation as a whole act as one to face its enemies one by one.  While the conclusion of these wars are still before us, the need for that sense of unity, the oneness of purpose and the quiet resolve of a nation which will not be defeated are required now more than ever.   Only thru unity while rejecting the calls for divisions will Israel push thru the serious dilemmas which still face it today, from both allies and enemies.

Avi Abelow | Israel Unwired | Oct 27, 2026

Click Image to Enlarge. Image created via AI.

Today is Election Day and we are so blessed to have our own country with elections!

And before the votes are counted, I want to highlight an important issue.

For two years, I have been warning about what was happening with the ultra-Orthodox draft issue.

Not because the issue isn’t real.

It is real.

I have served in the IDF and reserves for more than 30 years. My sons have served. During this war, my family has lived through repeated call-ups like so many Israeli families.

I believe more ultra-Orthodox men should serve. I have said repeatedly that our situation living in Israel is a constant milchemet mitzvah, and that serving in the IDF to defend the Jewish people is both a national and Torah responsibility.

But since 2024, I have also been warning that a profound societal challenge was being transformed into something else:

a political weapon.

And today, we may discover just how brilliantly that weapon worked.

On November 7, 2024, nearly two years before this election, I published an op-ed in The Jerusalem Post titled:

“Be Careful What You Wish For: The Haredi Draft Is a Societal Challenge the IDF Can Solve.”

My argument then was not to ignore the problem. It was to actually solve it.

I wrote:

“I believe it is inevitable that the IDF will make the necessary adjustments to accommodate the needs of haredim.”

Why?

Because integrating an entire community into the military is a generational societal transformation, not something accomplished overnight. The process has begun, and it will continue.

And there is an irony few acknowledge: some of the loudest voices on the political left demanding mass Ultra-Ortgodox enlistment today will eventually become its fiercest critics, and refuse to send their kids to the IDF, when the IDF adapts to accommodate tens of thousands of ultra-Orthodox soldiers, and inevitably becomes more religious and visibly Jewish in the process.

The very changes necessary to integrate HUlyra-Ortgodox successfully will ultimately be the changes their loudest critics oppose most.

Oh the irony…

That was November 2024.

Then, on March 27, 2025, I wrote an article for Israel Unwired whose title could not have been clearer:

“Solving the Ultra-Orthodox Draft Issue Means Seeing Through the Political Manipulation.”

I wrote that this legitimate national debate:

“has been cynically weaponized by the political left to create division rather than to actually solve the problem.”

That wasn’t written yesterday.

It was published more than a year and a half ago.

I watched a real, painful societal issue being transformed into a political wedge designed to rip apart Israeli society with hatred, and, ultimately, bring down Netanyahu’s government.

And unfortunately, the strategy has worked extraordinarily well, just as I feared.

On July 28, 2026, I returned to the subject in The Jerusalem Post with an article titled:

“Beyond the Haredi Draft: What’s Really at Stake for Israel’s Future.”

With elections approaching, I saw right-wing Israelis telling me they were considering abandoning Netanyahu, Smotrich and Ben-Gvir primarily because of anger over the Ultra-Orthodox draft issue.

I warned:

“It would be a national mistake” to make such a consequential political decision primarily out of anger over this one issue.

And I wrote explicitly that the draft had become:

“one of the primary political weapons for bringing down the current government.”

Today, Israelis are voting.

And they succeeded in turning the ultra-Orthodox draft issue into the defining issue of this election, rather than Netanyahu’s leadership in taking Israel from the catastrophe of Oct. 7 to an extraordinarily strengthened strategic position; rather than the role Smotrich and Ben-Gvir played in pushing for victory despite enormous international and domestic pressure, from Gadi Eisenkot and a failed senior security/intelligence leadership, to end the war earlier; and rather than Israel’s remarkable economic resilience under Smotrich despite the staggering costs of nearly three years of multi-front war.

Instead of debating who helped Israel confront Hamas, Hezbollah and Iran, and who advocated ending the fighting sooner, the campaign became dominated by the Ultra-Orthodox draft.

Now we discover whether that political strategy worked, and whether anger over that one issue was powerful enough to determine the government that will lead Israel after this war.

But this is the part that hurts me most…

Think back to the months after October 7.

Something extraordinary was happening inside the Jewish people.

The labels began disappearing.

Religious. Secular. Haredi. Settler. Kibbutznik. Left. Right.

We were Jews.

We were brothers.

All under attack by a jihadi enemy.

Ultra-Orthodox Jews volunteered throughout the country. Ultra-Ortgodox young men began stepping forward to serve in the IDF, many turned away by the IDF. Uptra-Orthodox soldiers could return to their communities in Bnei Brak and Jerusalem wearing their IDF uniforms in the streets with pride.

An unbelievable process was happening pulling the Uktra-Ortgodox community closer than ever to the IDF.

There was a window into another Israel.

And instead of nurturing that process, the political left destroyed it all by running a massive political campaign about the draft issue, including constant advertisements in national-religious newspapers and Shabbat publications, stopping that amazing process and creating an atmosphere of hatred.

A complicated societal challenge, that was actually improving, became a campaign of hate and anger.

Instead of asking, “How do we bring more Uotra-Ortgodox into the IDF?”, too much of the public conversation became, “Whom can we blame for it not happening perfectly?”

That atmosphere has poisoned Israeli society.

And here is the incredible irony…

While Israelis were being told nothing was changing, something actually was changing.

Ultra-Orthodox enlistment to the IDF has risen significantly.

According to IDF figures reported this summer, at least 4,000 Haredim enlisted between July 2025 and July 2026, compared with approximately 2,800 the previous year, 2,200 during the first year of the war and roughly 1,700 annually before October 7.

That’s not enough, but it is a fabulous change.

And pretending nothing has changed is simply false.

And one of the most important developments has been the creation of the Hashmonaim Brigade, an IDF framework specifically designed to allow Ultra-Ortgodox men to become combat soldiers while maintaining their religious lifestyle.

Its soldiers have already operated in Gaza, Lebanon and Syria.

In July, the first Ultra-Ortgodox soldiers from Hashmonaim even graduated from an officers’ course.

That is not failure.

That is the beginning of societal change that the divisive campaign of hatred based on the draft issue hid from the public.

And remarkably, much of this progress has occurred under the very government accused of doing “nothing” about Uktra-Orthodox enlistment.

As Bezalel Smotrich has argued, just as his government advanced the historic approval of 104 new communities in Judea and Samaria largely through quiet work away from the headlines, he says he has been using the same approach with the Ultra-Orthodox draft issue: steady, practical progress rather than political populist theater.

Yet too many people are judging this enormously complex societal transformation through bombastic headlines and populist messaging. Some historic changes succeed precisely because they are allowed to develop quietly rather than being turned into political warfare.

Meanwhile, look at everything else that is at stake…

This election was never only about the Haredi draft.

Over these years, Israel has undergone changes many right-wing Israelis have demanded for decades.

Israel stopped merely containing our jihadi enemies and began taking the fight directly to them.

The reality in Judea and Samaria has changed dramatically, with new Jewish communities and farms strengthening our hold on our ancestral heartland.l to protect the country.

Judicial reform, despite enormous resistance, finally began challenging a system many right-wing Israelis have voted for decades to reform.

Policies regarding terrorist prisoners changed.

Civilian gun ownership expanded dramatically after October 7.

Jewish sovereignty and Jewish identity have become increasingly visible.

Have Netanyahu, Smotrich and Ben-Gvir accomplished everything I wanted?

Absolutely not.

I criticize them when I believe they deserve criticism.

Gaza must totally be liberated with all jihadis gone.

The Haredi draft problem still must be solved.

Judicial reform is unfinished.

There is enormous work left to do.

But there is a gigantic difference between saying “you haven’t accomplished enough” and pretending “you accomplished nothing, so let’s vote you out.”

And there is an even greater difference between demanding more from the Right and returning power to the political left that will reverse everything the Right actually accomplished.

That was the brilliance of this political left wedge strategy…

Take one genuine grievance.

Focus public anger relentlessly upon it.

Turn Israelis against one another.

Convince right-wing voters that because their government failed to properly solve one extraordinarily complicated problem, they should abandon parties implementing policies they have demanded for decades.

Then return to power and reverse those policies.

Politically, it was brilliant.

For Israeli unity, it has been devastating.

And that is why today matters so much.

But whatever happens tonight, I believe in the nation of Israel.

Maybe the political campaign worked and the left returns to power.

Maybe it didn’t.

We will know soon enough.

But regardless of tonight’s election results, I refuse to lose faith in the Jewish people.

Because politicians come and go.

Governments rise and fall.

Media campaigns begin and end.

But look at us.

After 2,000 years of exile, we are home.

After everything done throughout history to destroy us, we rebuilt Jewish sovereignty in our indigenous, ancestral homeland.

In 78 years, we transformed a tiny struggling country into one of the most extraordinary nations on earth.

We revived Hebrew.

We gathered Jews from across the world.

We built cities, farms, universities, yeshivot and one of the world’s most powerful militaries.

And when October 7 struck us, ordinary Israelis showed the world who we really are.

That is the Israel I believe in. One that overcomes the divisive politics.

Most Jews do not hate one another.

Most Israelis want unity.

Most Israelis want Ultra-Orthodox serving alongside their brothers while remaining proud Torah-observant Jews.

Most Israelis want our soldiers protected.

Most Israelis want security.

Most Israelis want our children to inherit a stronger Jewish state.

The political noise sometimes makes us forget that.

Don’t.

Whatever happens tonight, our story is much bigger than one election.

We will continue solving the Ultra-Orthodox draft challenge.

We will continue strengthening Jewish sovereignty.

We will continue defending this land.

And we will continue overcoming those within who seek to divide us.

Strengthen your faith.

Look at what the Jewish people have already overcome.

Look at what we have accomplished.

Our future is bright.

We are living through one of the most miraculous chapters in 2,000 years of Jewish history.

Believe in God. Believe in the Jewish people.

We have come too far to stop now.

Am Yisrael Chai!!!

---