The True Story Behind Israel’s Exploding Ultra-Orthodox Draft Crisis

Today, we saw the ugly side of a problem this country has preferred to ignore: the deliberate efforts by certain elements within the Haredi community to prevent even the possibility of a Kiddush Hashem, a sanctification of God's name, by those willing to serve and contribute.

For too long, there have been two sets of rules in parts of the Haredi world. Police officers and municipal workers are verbally abused and physically attacked. And the official response? Indifference. Excuses. Silence.

It speaks volumes that in certain neighborhoods, businesses operate without licenses or paying arnona (municipal taxes), while enforcement agencies turn a blind eye. Why? Because the prevailing attitude is: "They are crazy, ignore them." This abandonment of basic law and order is exactly what has allowed the Haredi draft crisis to fester.

Just as unchecked crime in parts of Arab society is tolerated, so long as it stays in their neighborhoods, the government, municipalities, and police have chosen appeasement over responsibility. Even when their own employees are harassed or attacked, they do nothing. They have made a calculated decision: tolerate injustice today to avoid confrontation tomorrow. And so injustice thrives.

How can anyone still be surprised? Soldiers, the young men and women willing to serve, to sacrifice, and to protect, are routinely harassed and humiliated in some Haredi neighborhoods. And what is the response from the authorities? Symbolic gestures. A few public statements. Maybe a token arrest. Meanwhile, the real message is clear. The harassment will continue, and no one in power is willing to confront it seriously. A society that fails to defend its defenders is a society eating itself from within.

Now, as the draft crisis deepens, the politicians rush to point fingers, at the Haredim, at the courts, at each other. But the truth is, they should point the first and harshest finger at themselves. Israel's political leadership created this problem through cowardice, neglect, and complicity. They abandoned the field long ago, and now they are shocked to find it overgrown.

Someone needs to put their foot down. Someone needs to stop making excuses. The absence of Haredi participation in the draft is not simply a Haredi problem, it is a national disgrace enabled by national failure.

If anyone should face legal consequences, it is not the young men avoiding service, it is the leaders who abdicated their responsibility for years.

I, for one, am disgusted.