The Haredi draft numbers are a disgrace

Something has to give.

According to the latest numbers presented to the Knesset, over 18,000 draft orders were sent out by the IDF to Haredim. Of those, just over 200 - no, that's not a typo - have enlisted.

I'm sure the Haredi community and its spiritual leaders consider this a great victory for its long-standing opposition to allowing its sons and daughters to serve in the IDF, as we can also see with their wholesale effort to pass a draft law which will draft no-one.

But such a victory will be Pyrrhic.

The same report which presented the abysmal draft numbers also noted that Haredim now represent about a quarter of potential draft candidates, and that number will only increase given Haredi birth rates.

Before October 7, and thanks to the relative baby boom of previous decades, many in Israel thought that the country only needs a "small, smart army" with lots of technology. Now, we realize we need all the men we can get and especially on the front lines.

We need soldiers, a lot of them, in order to protect Israel and its Jews from terrorists, and we need them now. If we don't get them, more Jews will die, because we'll be able to defend even less of the country and it borders. It's that simple.

I know my Haredi brethren are concerned about the fanatical elites who want to secularize everyone or force woke agendas on them. But you hold all the cards right now: the IDF needs soldiers and will be willing to make very sweeping concessions, binding ones, to get them. The alternative is a serious weakening of the country.

Don't delude yourselves that you'll be able to enjoy the arrangements you do under the Arabs, like Rabbi Dov Lando claims. Anyone who pays even minimal attention to how countries are run in this region knows that is nonsense. Spare me, too, the threat to flee to America. If you meant it, you'd have done it by now.

I know moral and Torah appeals will fall on deaf ears. But for your own security and for the sake of the maintenance of the Torah society - Haredi men mut join their brethren on the field of battle.

Yesterday.