No to the war against the haredim, yes to Israel’s security - opinion

The election results delivered an embarrassing reality check for those who turned the haredi (ultra-Orthodox) draft into their primary political cause.

Yoaz Hendel, who championed the reservists’ struggle, failed to cross the electoral threshold. Ofer Winter, who similarly raised the draft flag, suffered defeat. Yuli Edelstein, who made the issue his central political battleground, found himself outside the arena.

Attempts to establish an independent haredi political alternative also failed. The Haredi Public Party, which advocated a different approach to the draft without rabbinic endorsement, received negligible support.

These failures do not make Israel’s manpower crisis disappear. They expose the failure to translate a genuine security challenge into a workable national solution.

Sanctions have worsened the crisis

In recent years, High Court rulings, budget cuts, economic sanctions, call-up notices, and arrest threats have become central instruments of draft policy.

Yet the promised breakthrough never arrived.

Despite substantial investment in tailored military tracks, initiatives such as the Hashmonaim Brigade and Netzah Yehuda Battalion have struggled to realize their potential.

According to Lt.-Col. Yossi Levi, CEO of the Netzah Yehuda Association, two years of sanctions severely damaged efforts to recruit haredim into combat roles, producing no actual growth in combat enlistment.

In the August draft cycle, the Hashmonaim Brigade enlisted fewer than 80 combat soldiers.

Even the IDF’s reported enlistment growth requires scrutiny, as its figures include arrested yeshiva students formally inducted into the military system without necessarily entering active service.

Perhaps the most egregious measure was revoking daycare subsidies worth hundreds of millions of shekels, harming working haredi families and their young children.

Coercion has generated antagonism, alienated potential recruits, and undermined tailored integration programs. Deep social transformation requires trust, legitimacy, and cooperation.

The public wants a different approach

A survey conducted by the Institute for Haredi Strategy and Policy in August-September 2026 among 1,001 Jewish adults reveals a striking gap between political rhetoric and public attitudes.

Fifty-eight percent regard preserving Torah study as an interest of Israel as a Jewish state.

Seventy-eight percent support alternatives to current sanctions that recognize the need to regularize the status of Torah scholars.

Within this group, 49% of all respondents favor formally recognizing and funding full-time Torah study under clear criteria, alongside a draft requirement for those who do not qualify. Only 22% favor maintaining current sanctions.

Moreover, 92% believe reducing tensions between haredi society and the broader Israeli public is important.

A practical security alternative

The burden borne by Israel’s soldiers and reservists is real, and their demand for relief is justified. Precisely for that reason, Israel cannot afford to substitute symbolic confrontation for additional operational manpower.

Israel urgently needs reserve forces for regional defense, base security, settlement protection, and homeland defense, alongside technological, intelligence, and emergency capabilities.

Two years ago, the Institute for Haredi Strategy and Policy, working with former senior defense officials, launched the Senior Executives 2030 Plan, targeting the integration of 50,000 working haredim into security and emergency systems by 2030.

Its three pillars are reserve service, integration into defense industries and systems, and strengthening civilian emergency organizations.

Institute research found that 70% of surveyed working haredi men aged 24 and older expressed interest in active, binding reserve service.

This represents an enormous untapped security resource.

The solution should begin with a three-year temporary legislative framework (Hora’at Sha’ah).

Under this framework, sanctions and legal confrontations would be suspended. The state would guarantee that anyone genuinely dedicated to full-time Torah study could continue learning without arbitrary quotas or dependence on others’ enlistment numbers.

This guarantee is essential for securing cooperation from senior rabbinic authorities.

Simultaneously, the government should establish a properly funded national directorate with executive authority to implement a five-year haredi security integration plan.

The immediate priority must be large-scale recruitment into haredi reserve units, where willingness already exists, and meaningful security contributions can be achieved relatively quickly.

Tens of thousands of haredim who deferred service while studying and subsequently entered the workforce could undergo tailored training and serve in organic units responsible for regional defense, base security, and homeland protection.

Such forces would strengthen defensive capabilities, free existing military personnel for other missions, and relieve exhausted reservists.

Building trust with rabbinic leadership would also enable constructive dialogue about tailored service solutions for haredi youth who are not studying Torah.

Alongside reserve service, integration into technology, intelligence, defense industries, and emergency response organizations should expand.

After three years, the government could evaluate actual participation, operational capabilities, and measurable contributions to national security before determining the next steps.

Measure security, not sanctions

Israel must fundamentally rethink how it measures success in haredi integration.

The relevant metrics are not how many draft notices were issued, how many sanctions were imposed, or even how many individuals completed basic training.

Training is a means. Security is the objective.

Have regional defense and base protection improved? Have operational reserve units been established? Has the burden on existing reservists diminished? Has trust between haredi society and the defense establishment increased?

Continuing sanctions and legal battles perpetuate confrontation without resolving Israel’s security needs.

A practical partnership offers another path.

The objective is not to defeat the haredim in a battle over the draft. The goal is to build Israel’s security together with them.

The writer is the publisher of Mishpacha Magazine, founder and chairman of the Institute for Haredi Strategy and Policy, and founder of the Paley Foundation.