Israel’s Supreme Court held unanimously on Tuesday that religious students must be drafted into the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), dividing Israelis but inadvertently making Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s case for judicial reform.
All Jewish Israelis, male and female, are conscripted into the IDF; some Arab groups also join the draft, while others volunteer. But ultra-Orthodox Jewish religious students are exempt from IDF service, the idea being that their continuation of the Jewish religious tradition that was nearly wiped out in the Holocaust is its own form of national service.
The arrangement was negotiated by Israel’s first prime minister, David Ben-Gurion (himself a secular Jew), at a time when the number of ultra-Orthodox Jews was small. Since then, the ultra-Orthodox community has grown, largely due to high birth rates, and the number of men seeking religious exemptions has grown as well.
That has long grated on other Israelis, including on some (though not all) Orthodox Jews who volunteer to serve in the IDF. The issue has become more divisive during the war that erupted after the Hamas terror attack of October 7, when many reservists have left their homes and jobs to serve for months on the front lines.
Thousands of ultra-Orthodox Jews have volunteered for the IDF for the first time since the war began, and many have helped the war effort in other capacities as well. But the issue of drafting religious students has remained contentious.
Several Israeli governments, left and right, have tried to broker a compromise, but have been thwarted — either by political discord, or by the Supreme Court, which intervened in 2017 to nullify a deal that would have continued the ultra-Orthodox exemption. Netanyahu’s government tried to delay a court-imposed deadline to resolve the issue, but the Supreme Court has imposed its will, earning praise from the opposition and condemnation from the government.
The Associated Press reports that the decision “could lead to the collapse of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s governing coalition.” But there is no evidence to support that conclusion, which may reflect the wishful thinking of the media, the opposition, and the Biden administration. It is more likely that the decision will unite the current, right-wing government against the attempt by the judiciary to impose its will, during the war, on the legislature.
Ironically, the Supreme Court has actually made Netanyahu’s case for his judicial reforms, which were the subject of intense controversy in Israel until October 7. He argued that the judiciary, which is dominated by the left, had become too powerful. His coalition is now more united than before in that belief.
The only way the court’s decision could threaten the governing coalition is if Netanyahu orders the IDF to implement it rather than seeking a compromise.
Israel’s current force strength is enough, IDF leaders have repeatedly said, to deal with Hamas in the south and the growing threat from Hezbollah in the north. There is little chance of reservists refusing to serve if ultra-Orthodox soldiers do not. However, the controversy will continue to drive Israel’s internal divisions — even if it does not, as mainstream media outlets and Biden administration policymakers may hope, bring down the Netanyahu coalition.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the recent e-book, “The Zionist Conspiracy (and how to join it),” now available on Audible. He is also the author of the e-book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
