A Religious Zionist response to Israel’s Haredi draft bill, the IDF manpower crisis and the tension between Torah study and shared national service.

I believe deeply in Torah study. I believe it sustains the Jewish people, shapes the Jewish state and gives meaning to the sacrifices made to defend it.

But believing in the value of Torah study does not require me to accept every political demand made in its name.

IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir has now warned Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Defense Minister Israel Katz and Knesset committee chairman Boaz Bismuth that legislation freezing enforcement against Haredi draft evaders is incompatible with the army’s needs. The proposed law would suspend arrests and other enforcement measures for at least seven months and provide protection to tens of thousands of men who have failed to report for service. Zamir warned that it would actually encourage more young men not to report.

His objection should be taken seriously, especially by those of us who identify as Religious Zionists.

The IDF is not merely Israel’s military. It is one of the great social levelers of Israeli life. Young men and women from different ethnic, economic, geographic and religious backgrounds meet one another, depend upon one another and learn that the state belongs to all of them—and that all of them bear responsibility for it.

My........

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