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An impending crisis over enlisting ultra-Orthodox Jews into the military is threatening to undermine the governing coalition and fracturing the nation.

The public mood on the matter has undergone a sea change in Israel following two years of hostilities, and this is now perhaps the most explosive political issue facing the Prime Minister.

The Legal Battle

Politicians are reviewing a proposal to end the special status given to yeshiva scholars engaged in full-time religious study, instituted when the State of Israel was established in 1948.

This arrangement was struck down by the Supreme Court almost 20 years ago. Interim measures to extend it were formally ended by the court last year, forcing the government to begin drafting the community.

Roughly 24,000 draft notices were issued last year, but only around 1,200 Haredi conscripts showed up, according to military testimony presented to lawmakers.

Friction Spill Onto the Streets

Friction is spilling onto the streets, with elected officials now debating a new draft bill to force Haredi males into army duty together with other Israeli Jews.

A pair of ultra-Orthodox lawmakers were targeted this month by radical elements, who are enraged with parliament's discussion of the draft legislation.

And last week, a elite police squad had to assist army police who were surrounded by a sizeable mob of community members as they attempted to detain a suspected draft-evader.

These enforcement actions have prompted the establishment of a new communication network named "Dark Alert" to send out instant alerts through the religious sector and summon protesters to block enforcement from happening.

"This is a Jewish state," remarked an activist. "You can't fight against Judaism in a Jewish state. It is a contradiction."

An Environment Apart

Yet the transformations blowing through Israel have failed to penetrate the environment of the Kisse Rahamim yeshiva in a Haredi stronghold, an religious community on the edge of Tel Aviv.

Within the study hall, young students study together to analyze Jewish law, their brightly coloured school notebooks popping against the rows of white shirts and small black kippahs.

"Visit in the early hours, and you will see a significant portion are engaged in learning," the leader of the yeshiva, Rabbi Tzemach Mazuz, explained. "Through religious study, we shield the soldiers wherever they are. This is our army."

The community holds that continuous prayer and religious study protect Israel's soldiers, and are as vital to its military success as its advanced weaponry. That belief was endorsed by previous governments in the past, Rabbi Mazuz said, but he conceded that public attitudes are shifting.

Rising Popular Demand

This religious sector has more than doubled its proportion of the nation's citizens over the past seven decades, and now constitutes around one in seven. An exemption that started as an exemption for several hundred religious students became, by the onset of the recent conflict, a cohort of approximately 60,000 men not subject to the draft.

Surveys indicate support for drafting the Haredim is increasing. A poll in July revealed that a large majority of the broader Jewish public - encompassing a significant majority in his own coalition allies - supported penalties for those who ignored a enlistment summons, with a clear majority in supporting removing privileges, passports, or the right to vote.

"It seems to me there are individuals who reside in this country without serving," one off-duty soldier in Tel Aviv commented.

"It is my belief, regardless of piety, [it] should be an excuse not to perform service your state," added Gabby. "If you're born here, I find it somewhat unreasonable that you want to exempt yourself just to study Torah all day."

Perspectives from Inside a Religious City

Support for extending the draft is also found among traditional Jews not part of the ultra-Orthodox sector, like Dorit Barak, who is a neighbor of the seminary and highlights non-Haredi religious Jews who do enlist in the army while also maintaining their faith.

"It makes me angry that the Haredim don't serve in the army," she said. "It's unfair. I am also committed to the Torah, but there's a proverb in Jewish tradition - 'The Book and the Sword' – it means the scripture and the weapons together. This is the correct approach, until the messianic era."

Ms Barak runs a local tribute in her city to fallen servicemen, both from all backgrounds, who were fallen in war. Long columns of images {