Haredim should join the IDF, but coercion will not work, Shas source says

Haredim who do not study in yeshivot (Jewish religious study academies) should serve in the IDF, but politicizing the issue or coercing haredim into IDF service without their cooperation will not work, a source from Shas said on Thursday, after the IDF on Wednesday presented a plan to prolong mandatory and reserve military service but did not include provisions to enlist haredi men

The source preferred to remain anonymous due to the sensitivity of the issue, as the plan garnered widespread criticism since it has non haredi Jewish Israelis serving for longer periods,  while haredi men would remain exempt.

The plan to lengthen IDF service is necessary both because of the growing number of casualties in the war, and because of the need to enlarge the army in order to meet the heightened security situation.

The main tenets of the plan are that mandatory service will be lengthened to three years; the age of reservist exception will rise from 40 to 45; the age of exemption for reservist officers will rise to 50; and the number of mandatory reserve duty days per year will double.

According to the source from Shas, the Sephardic-haredi party and a member of Israel's governing coalition, many young haredi men are not studying in yeshivot and can provide much-needed manpower for the IDF without it even having to draft yeshiva students.

The IDF must create a framework for the haredim

However, the IDF must create frameworks that enable haredim to maintain their lifestyle, which includes gender segregation and stringent kashrut (Jewish dietary laws) requirements.

The current frameworks are insufficient and the IDF has not done enough in recent years to create them, the source argued. Furthermore, gender segregation is likely to irk many secular or non-haredi Israelis. The issue therefore needs to be treated wisely and sensitively, and haredim will not enlist if the issue becomes a platform for political maneuvering and haredi-bashing, the source said.

The source pointed out that Shas Welfare Minister Yaakov Margi has recently presented this position publicly.

Margi said in an interview on Army Radio on Sunday that there is a "fierce desire" amongst young haredi men to join the IDF.

"There is large potential in the haredi sector for enlistment that is not realized – without even discussing the world of torah study," Margi added.

He argued that the IDF can create proper frameworks for haredi men and has done so in the past and that he would support new such initiatives.

Another prominent minister from Shas, Interior Minister Moshe Arbel, was not willing to comment on the issue on Thursday morning. However, in the evening he wrote in a letter to Yossi Eli, CEO of a nonprofit organization that assists soldiers from the haredi Netzach Yehuda combat battalion, "Your central mission at this time is to integrate haredim in long and significant combat service due to the large national necessity that arose from the war."

However, the Ashkenazi-haredi party, United Torah Judaism (UTJ), has traditionally been more forceful in its opposition to haredi enlistment, and its Knesset members were not willing to comment on the issue in response to queries.

Housing Minister Yitzhak Goldknopf of UTJ said in an interview to the haredi news outlet Kikar Hashabat on Thursday afternoon that "we will certainly ensure that torah learners will not be enlisted."

The storm over the plan broke minutes after it was published on Wednesday.

Yisrael Beytenu chairman MK Avigdor Liberman wrote on X on Thursday that the plan was "discriminatory and damaging to the people's unity and the nation's resilience." Liberman argued that this was another example of what he called the "government of destruction's" choice to "prefer narrow coalition interests over national security." Liberman called on Ministers-without-portfolio and members of the war cabinet, MKs Benny Gantz and Gadi Eisenkot, both of whom are former IDF Chiefs of Staff, to announce that they will quit the government if the proposal passes as is.

The Movement for Quality of Government in Israel also expressed its opposition to the proposal, calling it "unfair and discriminatory" and claiming that it "critically harms the principle of equality." The movement called on the government first to cancel every "unequal exemption" from military service, and only then consider increasing its length.

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said in a statement on Thursday that the haredi public "contributes much to the State of Israel," but that "now it is critical that they take a more significant part in the defense and security missions." However, "the move must be based on dialogue and discourse and not coercion or, heaven forbid, slander." He added that "Religious Zionism has proved that it is possible to combine torah study" and strict halakhic adherence with "military service at the front."

Smotrich said in an interview on KAN radio later on Thursday that he did not know in advance about the plan and that it had not been coordinated with finance ministry officials.

The IDF said to the Post that this was standard procedure, as the military usually puts forward elementary plans as a preliminary move, and later on sends a finalized version to the political echelon.

Minister-without-portfolio, war cabinet member, and leader of the National Unity party, MK Benny Gantz, said in a statement on Thursday that in April of last year, he and fellow party member MK Gadi Eisenkot presented a plan that would incorporate haredi, and Israeli-Arabs into national service programs so that all Israelis will provide at least one year of national service. Gantz said that he would act to implement his ideas with "broad agreement."

Yonah Jeremy Bob contributed to this report