Netanyahu Visits Haredi IDF Hashmonaim Unit: 'If You Don't Study Torah, You Must Serve'

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited the Hasmonean Brigade in the Jordan Valley Thursday, appearing before Haredi soldiers and delivering a pointed statement on the IDF draft controversy that has dominated Israeli politics for months.

"Whoever does not study Torah must enlist," Netanyahu said. "And when he enlists, he must have the right to enter as a Haredi and leave as a Haredi."

The visit, which Netanyahu made alongside Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee chairman Boaz Bismuth, came as elections approach and the Haredi conscription debate continues to roil the coalition.

Netanyahu praised the Torah world while drawing a clear distinction between those who study and those who do not, a formulation that stops short of demanding across-the-board Haredi conscription but draws a firm line for those outside the yeshiva system. "I respect the Torah world because generations of my forefathers and your forefathers preserved the heritage of Israel through Torah study," he said.

He framed the Hasmonean soldiers, who maintain a Haredi religious lifestyle while serving, as proof that the two worlds can coexist. "You can study Torah and serve, maintain a Haredi way of life and serve, hold the sword of David and serve and also learn. That is what strengthens us more than anything."

Netanyahu also tied the conscription issue directly to the ongoing war. "We are in the midst of a war, still on seven fronts," he said. "Our achievements come first from faith, from spirit, from strength, from technology and weapons, but ultimately it comes from the spirit of the Maccabees. You are Maccabees."

The prime minister said he had previously visited the unit before soldiers went to officer training, and said he was very moved seeing them as graduates. "You are the trailblazers, and others will follow. I see the great rise in enlistment and in the desire to defend the State of Israel."